Looking for some chemistry expertise/experience here. I bought some ARP head studs, which didn't quite fit. I don't have a thread micrometer, so I can't say exactly how oversized they were, but I wasn't going to get them in without a breaker bar (even then it's a maybe).
So I took a little off with a die and then installed the studs with a little oil. The block is aluminum. My concern is that now I may have a risk of corrosion between the aluminum block and the studs, which have exposed steel since the machining with the die removed the oxidation coating.
My guess is that I should be ok since oil is not very conductive, but I'm not very confident in that guess.
My understanding is that anytime you have dissimilar metals bridged by an electrolyte, that's a battery and the metals will corrode. What about when the dissimilar metals are in direct contact? I oiled the threads, but I'm sure there's some fraction of surface area that's not covered by oil. Is that at a risk to corrode?
So in summary, I have two questions 1) Do I have a corrosion risk between aluminum and steel, when bridged by oil? 2) Do I have a corrosion risk between aluminum and steel, when in direct contact?