Head clamping modification?

[Christ]

I was working on an engine the other day and someone mentioned to me that it appears that some blocks are drilled in such a way that, if one were so inclined, the head bolt 'blind' hole could easily become a head bolt 'through' hole with no threads in it, which would then utilize a threaded rod similar to an ARP stud, except with a nut and load-distributing washer on each side, which could be torqued until failure without damaging the head or block itself.

My question is whether anyone has ever seen an engine that was bolted together in such a way, where the heads and block were basically 'sandwiched' by a nut/stud/nut fastener configuration.

[sketchman]

Wouldn't the traditional way of just studding the block be better? You'd get far more threads holding it all together on the block end than just a nut, and if it's an iron block it should be plenty strong.

Not sure I see an advantage, and it sounds like it would be annoying to do in the first place, but no I've never seen anything like that.

[Christ]

Thread count after the first half an inch is just 'extra' in a lot of cases, so whether or not it would be 'stronger' is of little concern. The main idea is that it would spread out the pressure over a larger surface area on the base material, whether or not that could be advantageous. It does seem that such clamping style would help with engines that have a tendency to lift heads under load, but then again, those engines are repeatedly shown to need more fasteners anyway.

[sketchman]

Are you saying it would spread it out because it is clamping from the very bottom of the material instead of pulling on threads all the way through the hole in the deck? If that's the idea, maybe you could get the same effect by grinding a stud smooth past the bottom 1/2"-1" of it. Would be far easier than using a nut, though if I'm understanding your theory, not exactly as effective.

Easy to test anyway. Rather than using a nut I mean.

EDIT: Nevermind I, reread your OP. I see what you mean now. Missed the washer part.

[Christ]

Imagine when you get ARP studs, the [either] shouldered nuts or load distributing washers that come with them... put one on both sides of your stud, and whatever's in between gets sandwiched together without pulling on [or stretching] the base material.

Also would completely negate pulled threads, since the only thing you could really do is snap a stud, and then pull the pan to put a new one in.