few gen IV 7.4l mag questions
 

i have a 1990 checkmate convincor with 7.4L mag i just rebuilt, i bought a used weiand 177 setup and decided to put some ARP head studs in just for piece of mind and now the lower studs on the heads seem to stick up too far for my stainless marine manifolds to go back on anyone ever had this issue? i have check and rechecked studs are all the way in and they are for the the gen IV markIV block and hp heads i am lost with this

I don't use head studs on my motors because of clearance issues, and the fact that you can't really take the heads off on a dual setup without pulling the exh. off of the neighboring motor. You may have to go back to head bolts, just buy a high quality bolt if you're worried about it. FWIW, Merc uses head bolts on their 500hp and 525hp motors, Hawk Racing used to use head bolts on their supercharged 525's. I doubt you'll be going much over their numbers (the Hawk motors put out about 560hp on a dyno, and they're virtually the same setup you have with a different cam - the Merc 420hp cam). You should be fine.

The stud's will hit the manifold's. I have used them before myself. but all you have to do is cut the bottom stud's off at the most a 1/4 inch. and it's not all of them. i cut mine after i had my motor together, and just cut the corner off of a couple of them.

so could i just pull the lower studs out without removing the upper 2 rows and put bolts in them and just re-torque them or will i have to replace the head gaskets too? thanks for the help

Fixx
 

you can do one at a time but if you cut the end off you will be cutting off the alan center out as well..i know you have to screw the studs back in with ?? and make sure you seal the threaded side going into the block.

well i was thinkin about replacing the studs on the lower row with factory bolts so the manifolds fit