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DANK1981 · Feb 13, 2007, 04:04 PM

Is there anyway of knowing if the head gasket is torqued right?? This time the first time I torqued it 30lbs the second time I torqued it to 50. The chilton book says 22lbs the first time and 47 the second, but the car has 170k and the head has been serviced and shaved. It seems to have better compression.:confused:

TxGreaseMonkey · Feb 13, 2007, 08:15 PM

Only by precisely following the procedure for your given engine. Were your head bolts supposed be torqued "wet" or "dry?" This makes a HUGE difference.

DANK1981 · Feb 14, 2007, 10:27 AM

Originally Posted by DANK1981

is there anyway of knowing if the head gasket is torqued right??? This time the first time i torqued it 30lbs the second time i torqued it to 50. The chilton book says 22lbs the first time and 47 the second, but the car has 170k and the head has been serviced and shaved. It seems to have better compression.:confused:

So only time will tell

TxGreaseMonkey · Feb 14, 2007, 10:31 AM

Yes. Remember, if head bolts are supposed to be torqued wet and you do them dry, then the bolts are as much as 20 to 25% under-torqued. There's no way that a head gasket will last long being that much under-torqued.

DANK1981 · Feb 14, 2007, 01:13 PM

The chilton book said you can clean them or oil them I cleaned them and put thread lock on them and torqued them down 3 times once at 30lbs then at 50lbs and then again at 50lbs

ddollinger · Mar 25, 2008, 10:16 AM

The increased compression is due to the shaved head. Personally, I would recheck one more time now that it has been run through a few heat-up, cool-down cycles and I personally think you should be good as gold. Unfortunately you don't have much choice now because head gaskets are a one time shot. Once torqued, you need to leave them, if you loosen them to correct a problem it will break the seal and then they are no good. BUT txgreasemonkey is correct, you need to follow the service directions explicitely when dealing with such items.