What didyou torque the nuts to in a stock block ? Did you torque to the ARP spec of 110lb ft or what did you torque to, and with what lube ?

Thats a good question, it seems like a lot of stress on the threads with arp lube. The stud must be torqued more to stretch it, thats what keeps things together. Here is what I do. Put stud in finger tight, back out about 1/8 turn, mark the stud, torque nut to 110 with lube, make sure stud never turns in more and gets tight against the bottom of the block, that seems to be what breaks blocks. Others may have better ideas, you can't lower the torque too much, otherwise use bolts. Make sure you check your caps as sometimes studs will not let them sit flat, you may need to drill the holes out about so they do.

I would, and do use the ARP specs

That makes sense.

110 with paste for studs yes. You shouldn’t however, just throw studs in without checking the bores for distortion and sizing. I touch hone everything that has gone from bolts to studs, especially stock bolts to studs. The bottom ends of SBM actually move around a ton.

So I realize that this topic has been beaten so many times, but if you have the 4-bolt hardware available (MP stuff), and you are about to build a brand new motor (all the right machining needs to be done anyways), should I consider moving to a 4-bolt MP setup?

I have studs that will be used instead of main bolts, this is a 360 block with a 4" stroker crank. Because I have seen many people comment about the SBM bottom end the way you just did I thought of putting the 4-bolt setup in, despite the fact that many have said the stock SBM blocks do not have enough casting in the area.

Since this is a street motor, I figured anything else I can do to stiffen up the bottom end will be a move in the right direction, and given my hp levels (500 tops) I really should not be able to go past the levels of stress the 4-bolt mains can support in a stock block.

At 500 hp on a street build you could use oem caps and studs/align hone.

If you never dead hooked with a vert or t brake id not be afraid of stock caps and stock bolts.

If it were me id use the 4 bolt money on the best machine work you can get.

I never liked the idea of drilling and tapping holes in something that was already thin (not designed for). In my opinion you are better off with oem design, maybe new fasteners.