head bolts stretch or not?
 

Blown gasket on d2 w 130 miles.

Yes. You must use new ones.

Yea going to buy new. Trying to decide between stretch bolts and non stretch? if anyone has used non stretch please post.

The kit you get with the headgasket should have new head bolts.
They stretch.
You torque them to 15 foot pounds in order.
Then 90 degrees all in order.
Then 90 degrees all in order.
Put a paint strip on the bolts before beginning.
Use the paint stripe to figure out how far you have turned the bolts.

I have a tightening chart on
1997 Land Rover replace catalytic converter and head gaskets

It is a .pdf file.
DO NOT tighten a bolt at a time with all three steps.
You do ALL the bolts in a certain order. then repeat then repeat.

Like everyone else has said, use new bolts because the old ones are stretched.

What difference does it make?
Head bolts are cheap.

Thinking about using tru torque bolts arp and non composite gaskets. Need this gasket job to last longer than 50k.

........ Why have you decided that it's better to go that route? Have you done a head gasket job on your truck before? If not the first ones lasted 130k so why do you think the second job wont last? It's all in how the heads are machines, what condition your block is in and proper torquing..

On 2nd set of gaskets. Not sure about bolts that stretch. performance motors use torque bolts 80 to 90 ft lbs.

These are not performance motors.
If you over tighten them you run the risk of ripping holes into the block.
The HUMVEE head bolts are stretch and set at 25 ft lbs.