diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index ac21376169..5fa5002968 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
    (CASSANDRA-1100)
  * windows scripts for SSTableImport/Export (CASSANDRA-1051)
  * windows script for nodetool (CASSANDRA-1113)
+ * expose PhiConvictThreshold (CASSANDRA-1053)
 
 
 0.6.1
diff --git a/conf/storage-conf.xml b/conf/storage-conf.xml
index e1850385b0..02a0b4705d 100644
--- a/conf/storage-conf.xml
+++ b/conf/storage-conf.xml
@@ -215,6 +215,9 @@
 
   <!-- Time to wait for a reply from other nodes before failing the command -->
   <RpcTimeoutInMillis>10000</RpcTimeoutInMillis>
+  <!-- phi value that must be reached before a host is marked as down.
+       most users should never adjust this -->
+  <!-- PhiConvictThreshold>8</PhiConvictThreshold -->
   <!-- Size to allow commitlog to grow to before creating a new segment -->
   <CommitLogRotationThresholdInMB>128</CommitLogRotationThresholdInMB>
 
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/DatabaseDescriptor.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/DatabaseDescriptor.java
index ac87099102..38b1bdd206 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/DatabaseDescriptor.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/DatabaseDescriptor.java
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ public class DatabaseDescriptor
     private static InetAddress thriftAddress;
     private static String clusterName = "Test";
     private static long rpcTimeoutInMillis = 2000;
+    private static int phiConvictThreshold = 8;
     private static Set<InetAddress> seeds = new HashSet<InetAddress>();
     /* Keeps the list of data file directories */
     private static String[] dataFileDirectories;
@@ -288,6 +289,16 @@ public class DatabaseDescriptor
             if ( rpcTimeout != null )
                 rpcTimeoutInMillis = Integer.parseInt(rpcTimeout);
 
+            /* phi convict threshold for FailureDetector */
+            String phiThreshold = xmlUtils.getNodeValue("/Storage/PhiConvictThreshold");
+            if ( phiThreshold != null )
+                    phiConvictThreshold = Integer.parseInt(phiThreshold);
+
+            if (phiConvictThreshold < 5 || phiConvictThreshold > 16)
+            {
+                throw new ConfigurationException("PhiConvictThreshold must be between 5 and 16");
+            }
+            
             /* Thread per pool */
             String rawReaders = xmlUtils.getNodeValue("/Storage/ConcurrentReads");
             if (rawReaders != null)
@@ -1002,6 +1013,11 @@ public class DatabaseDescriptor
         return rpcTimeoutInMillis;
     }
 
+    public static int getPhiConvictThreshold()
+    {
+        return phiConvictThreshold;
+    }
+
     public static int getConsistencyThreads()
     {
         return consistencyThreads;
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/gms/FailureDetector.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/gms/FailureDetector.java
index 2804afdc1a..11e5cd96f5 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/gms/FailureDetector.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/gms/FailureDetector.java
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;
 import java.net.InetAddress;
 import org.apache.cassandra.utils.FBUtilities;
 import org.apache.cassandra.utils.BoundedStatsDeque;
+import org.apache.cassandra.config.DatabaseDescriptor;
 import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
 
 /**
@@ -45,7 +46,7 @@ public class FailureDetector implements IFailureDetector, FailureDetectorMBean
     public static final IFailureDetector instance = new FailureDetector();
     private static Logger logger_ = Logger.getLogger(FailureDetector.class);
     private static final int sampleSize_ = 1000;
-    private static final int phiConvictThreshold_ = 8;
+    private static int phiConvictThreshold_;
     /* The Failure Detector has to have been up for at least 1 min. */
     private static final long uptimeThreshold_ = 60000;
     /* The time when the module was instantiated. */
@@ -56,6 +57,7 @@ public class FailureDetector implements IFailureDetector, FailureDetectorMBean
     
     public FailureDetector()
     {
+        phiConvictThreshold_ = DatabaseDescriptor.getPhiConvictThreshold();
         creationTime_ = System.currentTimeMillis();
         // Register this instance with JMX
         try
@@ -110,6 +112,16 @@ public class FailureDetector implements IFailureDetector, FailureDetectorMBean
             throw new IOError(e);
         }
     }
+
+    public void setPhiConvictThreshold(int phi)
+    {
+        phiConvictThreshold_ = phi;
+    }
+
+    public int getPhiConvictThreshold()
+    {
+        return phiConvictThreshold_;
+    }
     
     public boolean isAlive(InetAddress ep)
     {
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/gms/FailureDetectorMBean.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/gms/FailureDetectorMBean.java
index 3c9f7e5a6a..d7411fc955 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/gms/FailureDetectorMBean.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/gms/FailureDetectorMBean.java
@@ -21,4 +21,8 @@ package org.apache.cassandra.gms;
 public interface FailureDetectorMBean
 {
     public void dumpInterArrivalTimes();
+
+    public void setPhiConvictThreshold(int phi);
+
+    public int getPhiConvictThreshold();
 }