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Getting head ready to install

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Brosky

Brosky

Great Pumpkin
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Tonight I finished chasing every thread in the head as well as those on all of the studs. I'm glad that I did, because everything needed a good clean out with the taps and the dies did the studs a great service, even though they are brand new.

I hate trying to put something back together on the car and finding a bind or tight bolt or nut before it's time. I'll clean every thread in the block before putting the new ARP stud kit in as well.

Every stud and nut now bottoms out easily with very slight finger pressure. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
 
Paul, I put some sealer on the head gasket in the area of the water jackets but away from the cylinders.
 
Paul, Looking schweeeeet!!! More PHOTOS!!

And you WILL author a technical "How to" for us
mechanic dummies, correct?

That's a very interesting tap handle you have there.
But isn't it kinda slow with all the holes you have to
clean?

I don't have a handle like yours, so I just put the tap
in my electric drill and spin it at slow speed. Cleans
the threads real fast like.

On a more serious note: It is difficult to get TR threaded
fasteners here on the island. I have started bring a tap
of required bolt size with me and giving it to the lad so
he can more easily locate my odd requests. The tap size
gives him the nut which then gives him the properly
threaded bolt.

I found some more DPO Pedro metric thru-bolts yesterday.

d
 
Bill,

I'm using the Payem head gasket, which is a composite and has the steel overlay around and bridge the gap in between the cylinders. Is that the area that you were concerned with?

Dale,

I'm old school when it comes to taps and dies. Do it slowly and by hand. You can feel the trouble areas doing it that way.

D,

I have not run the die over the ARP studs yet, but from the looks of them, I don't think that they will need it.
 
Brosky said:
D,

I have not run the die over the ARP studs yet, but from the looks of them, I don't think that they will need it.
Click to expand...

I don't think that is recommended. I just wasn't sure from your post if you had.
 
After reading what you just posted, I will definitely make sure that it's OK to do so before going any further.

Timeout.................

I just tried several nuts on the studs and they are as smooth as silk. No need to do anything.
 
Paul, I have ARP studs holding my head in. They are really nice. Mine had hex-head recessed tips, I guess for help in seating them, or removing them. I just layed mine in finger-tight and went from there. The studs came with some really cool 12-point nuts that allowed me to use a 12-point socket to torque them in. Remember, it is the stretch in the studs that get the grip, not so much the nut. Any comments?
I re-torqued after about 500 miles.
 
Bill, you're correct about the stretch of the studs. That's why it's recommended to torque and back off five times prior to final torque, to preset the studs. On my rod bolts, I don't use a torque wrench, rather a stretch gauge, to achieve the proper clamping force.
Jeff
 
Jeff,

I read your post about torquing (is that spelled right?) 3 times then back off. If I read it right, you go to specified value each time, then on the 4th attempt you go final? That's a new way to torque to me.

I also have never used a stretch gauge. Could you provide a short primer on it's use or a link? It sounds like it would be quite a bit more accurate.

Gordo
 
Gordo, that procedure was recommended to me by ARP, so I figure it's pretty good information. But, I goofed. It should be <u>5</u> times, not <u>3</u>. I modified the original post to address my error.
As far as the stretch gauge goes, you measure the length of the bolt prior to installation, and then measure it again during installation.
Here's a link to the procedure.

https://www.arp-bolts.com/Tech/TechInstall.html

Jeff
 
Brosky said:
Tonight I finished chasing every thread in the head as well as those on all of the studs. I'm glad that I did, because everything needed a good clean out with the taps and the dies did the studs a great service, even though they are brand new.

I hate trying to put something back together on the car and finding a bind or tight bolt or nut before it's time. I'll clean every thread in the block before putting the new ARP stud kit in as well.

Every stud and nut now bottoms out easily with very slight finger pressure. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
Click to expand...

Paul, the 5th stud to the right in your photo appears to have the nut placed about two threads too high to match the others. Sloppy, sloppy.

Also, what is that shifting spanner doing in the picture. I use mine as a hammer.
 
Bill,

My wife pointed out the thread count error as well and I reset the nut and took another shot of the head, with the valve cover studs in as well. I apologize for the sloppiness, but I just wasn't thinking straight at the time.

What surprises me is that you didn't seem to notice the (3) new split dowel pins that I installed. Please note that these are 300 series stainless steel, rather than a cold rolled material variation, so no discoloration of the header from rust will take place in the future.

The shifting spanner is simply a space saver when doing tedious tasks such as this. It saves having 4 or 5 wrenches on the bench and will fit the dies nicely as well.

Now about the torquing method of 5 times, then a final.

Do I understand that each bolt should be done 5 times on it's own, or do the complete torque down of the head, in the proper sequence, but 5 times and then the final?

I could find nothing about the 5 times on the ARP site from the link above. Anywhere else to look?
 
Jeff,

I got it the second time that I read it.

Just so I have this right, we'll just put everything together and torque it down, per TR sequence specs, back each off nut as in a retorquing of the head sequence and repeat each step exactly (4) more times and then a final.

Am I correct?

BTW, the torque wrench was re-calibrated prior to doing this job.
 
Paul, that's the way I've been doing it on all of the race engines. Actually, on all of my engines, as I won't use anything but ARP hardware.
Jeff
 
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