Headgaskets Aluminum Heads

As I posted before I use Fel-Pro head gaskets and have for forty years. I have even reused them many years ago when money was tight and never had a problem.

Until I built my current small block I had never re-torqued a head bolt or stud. At the time of the build there was some internet chatter about re-torquing head bolts/studs. I decided to see if the nuts on my head studs would return to the same location when re-torqued. The heads were installed, after torquing the nuts I painted a witness mark on each nut and the head. The next day, one at a time I broke each nut loose and re-torqued. To my surprise all of them turned at least a quarter turn more and some almost a half turn more.

I don’t think there is any significance to my experiment, but I did find it interesting.

The same thing happens with a torque plate or main bearing caps. I finish the bores to .0005 of what I want and let the block cool to ambient and then knock the plate loose and torque it again. The bores will move around. Usually the second torque will stay the same.

Its the same with main caps. Get the main line finished and retorque the caps and watch it change.