If you had a choice of Main bolts on a 454 with 4 bolt would you pick Studs or Bolts?

I used studs on mine. Also used a windage tray. I heard that if you stud the mains that it holds the torque better. I don't know if its true or not.

I used ARP studs, mine is a 2-bolt though. The only problem I ran into is that you have to grind the body of the oil pump to clear the stud. That's the only problem I ran into. I ran head studs too, but I don't think I'd do that again for the simple fact you can't remove heads with the motor in the car.

Matt

Studs on the mains helps keep the caps in line. This keeps the crank from walking back and forth.

You'll probably need to have it align honed if you go studs, but they're a much better way to locate the caps. They're the same dimension the full length versus bolts which are stud-sized only on the top 1/2" or so. Studs place much less stress on the block threads since they're not spinning when you torque them down. I stud pretty much everything that I'm going to drive hard. HTH

With studs you have more machanical advantage or clamping strenth due to the fine threads at the top of the stud and as mentioned before block should be line honed when installing bolts or studs

Looks like I will be getting a box of Main Studs and have the block align bored.

Do you need them? I have never studded a 4bolt block and not had a problem even in motors that saw 82-8400 every pass.