Head bolts or studs?

[Biotex]

I noticed today that my 1950 flat head has bolts holding down the head to the block. My parts engine has studs with nuts.
What does this tell me about the age of either engine? I'm wondering which method is better also?

[garage gnome]

I would use head studs. Can you post pictures of the two heads? All mine use studs. I think the bolts came on early non ribbed head engines.

[Mike S]

AFAIK, all the L134 engines were originally built with studs. Lots of them jet swapped around over the years.

[Biotex]

I would use head studs. Can you post pictures of the two heads? All mine use studs. I think the bolts came on early non ribbed head engines.

[athawk11]

Given the choice, I would use studs and nuts.  When removing a stubborn head, a stud give you two points of release.  The nut may come off just fine.  If it is stuck, the stud may come out of the block.

With a bolt, you only have one point of release before it would break.

Tim

[Lee]

I may be wrong, but was told, industrial engines (welder/generator engines, ect.) had bolts, jeep engines had studs. Industrial engines in most cases were governed and in a generator only ran 1800 rpm, less stress I guess. My 2A had bolts and I replaced them with studs/nuts.

Lee

[bretto]

The use of proper studs will have the proper thread engagement depth in the block.  Those bolts threads could have a shallow grab.