[Vwdiesel] Go for head studs or bolts

[William J Toensing]

I would go for studs over headbolts or stretch headbolts. On my Dasher, something caused the right front of the block to crack. Used non-stretch 11 mm bolts. Weather there was crud in the bottom of that bolt hole that caused it to crack or some other factor, I don't know. ARC recommends the studs be screwed into the block finger tight, then torque to 80 foot pounds in 3 or more stages. What I did was to drill into the water jacket, then retap the 11 mm bolt holes to 12 mm. However, there is water leakage. Whether I should remove that one stud, recoat it with a gasket sealer or ?, loosen the other bolts & retorque to 80 psi or dump some stopleak, or maybe both. Where do you get 11 mm studs. Guess on that engine I can experiment with as I have a 1.6 NA diesel engine I can replace it with. But if I have to pull that engine, I would like to replace the 4 speed with a 5 speed gearbox. However, my Quantum & 300 SD take priority over the Dasher. 
Bill Toensing, Nevada City, CA