Head Gasket
 

Hey all,

One last question before I'm off to the races. I had both my block and head machined, but reused the old headbolts (they were in great shape) and used a stock gasket (I've had poor luck in the past with metal types).

I torqued the head to 60ft/lb (this was done before reading this forum and I found 58 listed in both the hayes and TRSM). I've started it up, it runs great but after reading about all these HG horror stories I'm wondering if I should re-torque.

Should I retorque the head, to which value, and should it be warm or cold?

Thanks for all the help,

Colin Slade

You still should have used arp hardware.
NOT. A good idea to re use head bolts.

I appreciate the feed back but I did use factory head bolts and was hoping to get an answer of what I should do.... I cleaned the threads and applied a molybase lube so I am confident that I adeared to the recommendations of the TRSM and hayes manual. From this forums experience, should I cross my fingers or retorque the head?

On a side note, I've heard several people dogging the factory head bolts, what makes the ARP bolts so much superior? Being a mech eng, I am aware that head bolts are made with both the block and head composition in mind. It is critical that the bolt take into account the thermal expansion coefficents of the head and block so that uniform clamping force is applied throughout the temperature spectrum. A head bolt that is suitable for an aluminum block and head would no be suitable for an aluminium head with cast iron block.

The stock headbolts are good for a stock engine. Theres no problem with using stock headbolts for a stock engine build.

ive heard not to reuse the stockers because the threads stretch. also arp have a higher tensile strength. it is suggested to torque to arp specifications when using their hardware, which is like 80ish (dont have my sheet in front of me). also you may want to have the head torqued to 70ish

side note: did you read of the cause of the hg problems? also how did you prep the motor when you did your mhg?

Whatever you do. You replace the bolts or studs just 1 at a time.

Leaving all of the others alone until it's there turn.

when you say something like this, you should really give a reason as to why, most importantly im just curious why lol

Because if you do not do them 1 at a time and you just go about it how ever you want.

There will be too much resistance on the alluminum head and you"ll be machinging it all over again.

oh that makes sense but i just want to add for those who dont know there is a certain secuence you are supposed to put them in. look at the third pic in the link
MK3 TSRM On-Line