New Studs or Not

Just wanted some opinions about changing the cylinder studs,whether it's necessary or not...
The originals have approx 36,000 miles and the bike was not abused...I did buy new head bolts,mostly because the outside originals are pretty rusty...
It's not a high horsepower build,Andrews TW21 SE cast 9.4:1 piston kit in a 95" with '06 heads with an .030 head gasket on the '03 Cop King...
I don't think thread stretch would be a problem and don't want to replace perfectly good parts for the sake of replacing...
Just wondering how many replace studs when installing a big bore kit....

When I did the 98 and when I built the monster deuce both had stock studs and your only torqueing the bolts to forty pounds if they are cometic gaskets any ways use light oil on the threds they will be fine .

I reused the stock studs when I built the 05 88"er to a 95"er and it 60,000 miles on it. 12,000 miles later no problems.

Yes the stock cyl. studs are OK to re-use if you never overheated the motor badly. If the cyl. bores were not much out of round when you disassembled (they're always out a little), then it's safe to re-use them.

Incidently, German Motorad Magazine did a long term durability test (100,000 kilometers) on several air-cooled and water-cooled motorcycles a year or so back. Since it was a German mag, do you think a BMW came out on top? Wrong. The R1200 came in 3rd behind a Honda VFR1300. A Honda 1500 Goldwing finished 4th, and the BMW K1200 finished 5th.

Guess who scored 1st in overall durability, and with minimally measured mechanical wear. You are correct! 2008 H-D FLHT by a wide margin. They said "this motor will probably last 20 years in normal service".

Good to hear those reports. Of course they go against all I have BOOK learned. Supposed to be that the torquing affects the tensile strength of the studs and supposedly deteriorates them for re-use. I always was suspect of the "BOOK".

Thanks fellas...that's what I thought....just wanted some confirmation...
Yeah Fatboy,the book always says use new everythingMost times it's not really necessary...

When I did the Heritage over I replaced the studs...the stock studs in 1990 were shoulder less on the bottom and you had to set the stud height...Harley had come out with an "upgraded"set that are like the stock ones now with shoulders so you didn't have to measure and set the height...

only way ide replace them is if they were the early ones (and their basicly OK),but on a later EVO or TC,their installed with a "interferance" thread,so your actully doing harm to the treads in the case everytime their removed.we`ve built 11.0-1+ motors with stock studs with no problems

That's good to know...thanks for the info...
On the "early one's" do you mean early Evo's like my '90 that you had to set the height on and the interference one's have the shoulder on them??

No. Interferance threads have a slight barb on them that causes the thread to bite into the aluminum to prevent backing out. Shouldered studs were phased in gradually over time in mid-Evo's, so you may or may not have them.

My Evo didn't have them at first...I did change studs when that one was done over around '97 or '98 ...
This is the '03 King I was asking about,so the Twinkies have interference threads..yes??
With the info I got here,the only way Ill replace the stud on the king is if it comes out with the head bolt

Gonna start on it tomorrow...I'll post some pics in the Project Section...as things progress...

yes they do,its not really a barb as much a rolled thread,basicly dont mess with them unless you have to

cowboy,did you get a Parts Catalog yet...stock studs on my'90 Evo are 16837-85A,they aren't the interference thread...
My bud did a top end rebuild on a '94 Dyna last spring and he replaced the studs because a few of them came out with the head bolts,probably still laying around there,I'll check them out tonight... when I go up...

I'm in the middle of top end rebuild on 91 flhtc. I had a few cylinder stock cylinder studs come out during removal. Originally I was planning replacing the studs with a new set, so pulled them all, but with build expenses etc... I'm wanting to reuse the original ones. These are the ones with shoulder pointing up. My question is, what should the height be on these?

Installed height should be 5.670-5.770" above the base gasket surface....
IMO you'd be better off getting the new type stud that installs shoulder down The part number is 16837-85C for the studs used on 94-up Evos if you can still get them from HD...a set of Kibblewhite studs would only run you in the $80.00 range,but try HD first...either way it's a lot cheaper to upgrade the studs now than to try to repair one that pulled out..

Here's a link and price for Delkron's Studs

http://www.delkron-mfg.com/products/products.asp?pg=CmpntsStudsEvolutionTwinCamCylinderStudSet

J&P even better price....$28.99 Page 476

http://ipaperus.ipaperus.com/JPCycles/2010HarleyUpdate/2010HarleyUpdate/?Page=475

Thanks Lucifer for info. I thought that was measurements. Seen them in manual, but it jump under the 87 to 89 years, threw me off some, so wanted to make sure.