Heads are meant to go on L or R banks so the oil hole up to the rockers will be blocked off at the back.

 

I’ll try to answer. I’m pretty sure the hole in the gasket is because the gasket can be used on either head.
Personally I wouldn’t reuse the gasket, but others more experienced than me might say it’s ok.
I don’t think the bolt bottomed. I think it was simply over torqued.
Im not sure about the oil from your bolt hole. I hope there wasn’t oil or anything in the bolt hole when you installed the bolt, causing the case to crack.

 

I agree largely with what others have said. I normally chase all the bolt holes with a tap to clean them out and then degrease each with aerosol brake cleaner. Lube the threads with oil per the Rave. I would not re-use the gasket. I have done a write up previously on this but the Rover head bolts are not actually torque to yield but torque to angle and the entire purpose of that is to compress the HG to a specified thickness. Starting over with an already compressed gasket will result in additional compression, which in itself might not be bad but it will increase the stretch and stress on the headbolts and threads - both of which should be ok but I just find the hg to be super cheap relative to everything else.

 

Wow, Sooooo Lucky where that bolt broke! Get ARP studs.....

 

Extinct had a set posted for sale in our Marketplace section, May 15.

 

Whoops, forgot to take that down. Those sold in like 20 mins.

 

Had the same thing happen to me when I was replacing the HG. I was 16 and thought that the torque wrench would auto stop... Don't ask why I thought that. But definitely replace the gasket. Some LR dealerships still carry and sell the HG if you're in a pinch.

 

+1 for using the ARP head stud kit instead of the regular head bolts. Especially after having snapped a head bolt off in the head. The threads have already been under severe stress when snapping off the bolt. Head studs don't stress the threads in the same way, so they tend not to rip the threads out of the block as quickly as a bolt may do. You may be fine either way, it's just my bad past experiences making me nervous about hidden damage in aluminum after heavy stress. Best of luck!

 

I would like to preference this by saying I'm a young petite woman who has been doing this repair solo (minus y'alls excellent help) up until today... A friend with auto experience (not LR) came over to help me with the re-install. We did the 15 ft lbs, waited, re-checked... He was uncomfortable using a breaker bar for the 90 degree turn and wanted to monitor so we used a torque wrench set >100. The first 90-degree turns went fine. The second 90-degree turns, some of the bolts clicked immediately (meaning they hit 100 ft lbs), others hit 100 ft lbs closer to 45 or 70 degrees. When they hit 100 ft lbs we stopped per friend's recommendation and concern they could not let go of the torque not being equal on all bolts. At the the end, checked them all and they were all at 100.... Doug from the land rover videos said that two 90 degree turns put the torque >100 in his estimation.

I am worried. I was in a position of being man-splained to and friend had a logical rationale and for why they wanted to do it this way and the experience despite me repeating three times or more about what the manual said to do, about stretch bolts etc

So now what to do as I no longer have the degree reference.... Leave it as is, and proceed? I don't know what to do, I feel like throwing in the towel and giving up.

 

My opinion is leave it, you could tear it back down 1 more time but you have to replace the bolts. Given they are all at the same torque value, I would expect you are alright. There is no way to know 100%, but they are tight and in the correct range.

I personally would finish the job, fire her up and drive it and see how it goes. You may get a failure some 10000+ Miles down the road, or get 100000 miles.

Torque to yield don't work the same way as studs and nuts, it is weird to me so I went to Arp studs, but I am old and I understand that system