how important is the Head gasket "Retorque"

[rndrkeagle]

BPG,

I seem to recall you mentioning on a thread a little while back that to properly seat the head gaskets, that it's important to "re-Torque" the head bolts, after running the engine for a while. How important is this process? Given what's involved in just getting to those head bolts, do I really need to go through a 2+ hour tear down after getting it all put back together? Are there any alternative techniques I could employ? (such as reassembling enough of the engine to start it up and let it idle while still rotated down.. running it for a bit like that and re-torquing?)

 

[Buell_Cru]

I can't speak for everyone but my friend who is a mechanic said that when you rebuild a car or truck engine if you torque the bolts 3-4 pounds over stock you should never have to go back and retorque anything. He rebuilt my truck motor my wifes car and my boat engine. I have never had an issue and as far as removing those parts there is no issues getting the bolts back out.

 

[Buell_Cru]

I just called and asked him what his suggestion is for a bike and he said on his 110 evo motor he used a medium grade loctite and went one pound over stock on the heavier guage bolts and has had no issues.

 

[FEN13]

Never went over torque or retorqued head bolts. No problems so far with 2 different sets of heads on the race bike.

 

[bttrfngrz]

why he would over torque the bolts makes no sense to me me it's actually not very smart, well it's smart if your trying to ream out your threads, but if your not trying to ream some threads, just follow the service book and use red loctite.