My hb's are waiting for the final 90 deg and seems like something bad's going to happen. I don't have a book keeper's arms and, i'd really have to strain to do that with an 18" bar on it.. does that sound right? I can't measure the torque cuz I bought a new inch/lb wrench for the job, just seems wrong they have got to be at least 80 now? I know this last part is supposed to be scary... but geeze I suppose this is where the stretch part comes in, just feels like the threads are going to do the stretching. I did clean the threads with a proper hss tap and used the included lube. I hylomar'd the crap out of the gaskets, wish I could just leave it at that.

 

just do it, put a pipe on the end of the wrench if need be, the bolts will take it.

 

Not the bolts I'm worried about, did another 45.

 

You need to do 2 90° turns. They need to be tight otherwise it won't hold the explosion that happens in the chamber

If they strip (which can happen) then you have a different issue that will need attention

 

Damn those explosions... I did the 90, 45, then another 20 or so, stopped because some of the shorter bolts were making disturbing cracking noises from friction on the flange, stuck/loose, mo lube next time. I actually did the long bolts to 180 as per (see below). Well, if it works a while and leaks again I'll do it again with studs (despite Chongo's warning). Man those back bolts are awkward.

"Chongo: Head bolts must be replaced every time you remove the head, they are not regular bolts, but a special designed stretch bolt. Their is a tightening sequence principle that must be followed although contrary to popular belief, and the service manual, as long as the principle is adhered to the sequence can be changed. The principle is uniformly and incrementally tightening the head down. The actual order doesn’t matter. In testing the book vs. torque standards I found the service manual, “again” in error as it says to tighten all bolts to 15 ft. lbs. then 90 degrees more in sequence, then a additional 90 degrees for final torque. This is bogus, and utter nonsense. My findings after doing this left the 3 long head bolts at 50 - 58 foot pounds of torque, while the short head bolts read 68 - 72 foot pounds of torque. I found that almost an additional 90 degrees was required on the long bolts for a total of 245 - 270 degrees before the long bolts achieved the 68 - 72 foot pound equivalent to the short bolts. This makes the tension and torque on all bolts even. Due to the dissimilar materials of the steel bolts and aluminum heads it needs a stretch bolt design. Don’t go buying studs for this engine, you won’t be happy with the long term effects."

 

There are stories of people overtightening because they forget 90 degrees is a quarter turn, not a half turn.

 

No lol, I didn't do that. I did finally coax them all to the full 180, or was it 360? Either way, I did left bank with never seize on the flanges and they went in smoother, which gave me confidence that the others could withstand it too and they did. Thanks for harassing me into going for it . Tomorrow start up, have sniffer on hand to see if a you know what, is you know where.

 

I was thinking it was so tight because I was using the wrong body language for one thing, trying to muscle them down like I was flushing a toilet, pulling or pushing works much better, durr.

 

You: " I hylomar'd the crap out of the gaskets, wish I could just leave it at that."
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If these were head gaskets, you should NEVER, EVER, put anything on head gaskets. block and mating heads should be super clean, new gaskets dry and clean. Hyloar is great on some gaskets, but never on head gaskets.

 

Early Rover, thank you for your input, it's clear you're a "by the book" kind of guy, which is great but you must be aware that there are differing opinions on the use of things like copper cote and hylomar on head gaskets. I'm no master mechanic but I have used copper cote on nearly every head gasket I ever replaced (since I was once recommended to use it) including diesels and never once had to re-do. Also, if you look around on the net you will find people building 700+ hp engines using and swearing by the stuff, so as lousy as the record is on these LR HG's my feeling is that it certainly can't make things any worse than they already are and just might improve things. I think of rules in terms of being, more of a helpful suggestion ;-)