I suggest looking extra carefully, especially near the bottoms of them,
for pitting and corrosion.
Like with a magnifying glass even.
If it was me ..and they look fairly decent...I'd probably leave well
enough alone.
I also would be suspicious of the quality of new ones versus the
original factory-installed ones.

On 9/10/2013 10:04 AM, Tom Carchrae wrote:
> Dear List,
>
> I decided to skip my 'wishful' thinking test and have proceeded to head
> removal and inspection.  So far, so good - I have one side stripped down to
> all but the head nuts.
>
> I wanted to know how you determine if a head stud should be replaced?
>   Clearly if it snaps - but how do you determine that before it snaps?  Is
> it sufficient to measure them for stretching, or are there other ways to
> inspect them, eg, how do you determine if they have twisted - or is that ok?
>
> I see they are around $8/each - so 8*8*2 - is ~$130 worth spending to
> replace them all?  No doubt one could spend a lot of money replacing many
> things - would you replace the studs or spend the money elsewhere?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tom
>