There are better ways to achieving the girdle to pan rail clearance. Its not usually equal side to side. The solution is to mill the girdle on the side thats tighter and achieve a more accurate clearance side to side. The when the girdle rail is torqued the studs are stressed equally. Also beware of any studs that may have yielded under excessive torque loads on the mock up at the machine shop or by anyone who assembled the engine. I put over 700 ft lbs to the rear wheels on the dyno at 25psi and had ho problems with broken studs. Ive had it to over 27 psi on the street. Id bet there is a slight side to side variance on the engines that broke the studs. Trans brakes or not.
