ive been longg studded!. the people to contact are mountune racing. cost is about £300 and you get holes drilled through the middle six bolt holes in the face of the block into the main bearing housings. special double ended studs which have O rings fitted in the middle are supplied for these holes (there are pictures on mountunes web site). the standard bolts are used in the end 4 holes to hold the head on.

im told... the benifit of these is that the possibility of cracking across the face of the block is eliminated and a greater clamping force can be applied to the studs than can be applied to the standard bolts.

another benifit is that there is no need to use a torque plate to bore because the distortion introduced by the bolts picking up on the original bolt holes which are in the block face is gone.

one thing to consider if you get this done is that a 2wd head needs the original holes (where you enter the bolts) machining out or you cant get a socket in to tighten the nuts up on the studs. this is EXTREMELY annoy ing to find out at 9pm when ya on a roll and think the car will be on road tommorow cos ya gotta fully strip the head down to get it done then clean all the swarf away after