Re-torque headbolts

Hello all

this weekend the weather will be palmy fifty degrees so I’ll be tackling the leaky valve cover gaskets. While the valve covers are off I’ll try to re-torque the headbolts. Just wondering if it’s advisable to do so? And what’s the torque spec for the headbolts? Thank you

 

No. There is no reason to do it and they are not meant to be retorqued. They are stretch to torque bolts and are not meant to be retorqued or reused should you ever do head gaskets they must be replaced.

 

leave them be

 

No. They’re torque to yield

 

No, no, no!

Plus, if they were loose you'd have a lot bigger problems anyway.

 

Torque to yield means that they are torqued right up to the point of failure, basically. So do NOT try and "re-torque" them.

As others, said, if they're loose, you got issues.

 

I agree with what other's have said. Don't screw with them. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. That could change the shape of the older head gasket then you're in deep trouble.

 

Thank you all. I’ll leave them alone

 

I agree completely that they should probably not be retorqued, but to play devils advocate;
Yield Strength can be thought of as the point where plastic deformation begins to take place in earnest (technically its 0.2% off set from the elastic limit) when a bolt is torqued to yield strength then held, overtime vacancies it the metal lattice move, which means plastic strain increases, and since the length and thus total strain is constant, elastic strain decreases. Since force is proportional to elastic strain, the torque will decrease, and it will actually be under yield strength after some period of months or years, especially if the bolt is hot, which it is.
I wouldnt touch it unless theres some problem.

 

rorrapalooza said exactly what I was going to say but I did forget the part about the “overtime vacancies in the metal lattice move”. I’m glad he reminded me of that ; )

 

You would have to pull out the cams anyway.

 

But you do want to replace the rear cam seals and the semicircular plugs along with those gaskets or you are wasting your time.

may as well change plugs and wires and clean the throttle body too.

Annndd.. swap the plenum gaskets for new also. Hope its a good day