And don't forget the accuracy of your wallymart $4.99 made in China torque wrench. When I had mine calibrated last year, the guy said new torque wrenches from places like sears are often off by 20%.
Ray
:-)
But with (probably too much) due respect to the WebTV gallery, it probably is more important to make sure the bolts and holes are thoroughly CLEAN. If the threads are sufficiently clean, you'll probably get enough clamping force with a dry assembly.
The short story, of course is do what the manual says to do. Every Mopar and Ford engine I've ever built got assembled with the a) thorougly cleaned and chased head bolt holes in the block, b) thorougly cleaned, brushed, and inspected head bolts, and c) with the bolts soaking in a shallow container of clean engine oil until they're picked out and the excess oil shaken off for assembly.
As far as head bolt holes that enter the water jacket.... there's another item for my already-huge list of reasons never to own a Chevy. The thought of a HEAD bolt hole going into a water jacket never even entered my brain until the first friend with a small-block Shovealot asked for some help reassembling it.
Of course some people go too far the other way. A popular magazine's current issue has a Buick 350 build-up article that explicitly states that "Buick engines don't need to be bored with a torque plate installed because the head bolts don't enter the water jacked and the cylinders don't get tweaked when the head bolts are tightened." Arrrgh! ALL engines should be bored with a torque plate! There may be LESS distortion with blind bolt holes like a Buick 350, but there is always some distortion. And that's another reason for lubricated head bolts (or better yet- head studs.) With lubricated threads, less twisting force is applied to the block so there's less distortion of the bores.
Only on "torque to yield" bolts commonly used on modern aluminum-head engines.
That just makes no sense. New bolts are going to have more initial deformation at a microscopic level on the thread surfaces, and so will have less clamping force, even if you neglect any initial overall stretching of the bolt.
And that makes no sense either. Lubricated is more consistent than dry, because for one thing what is your definition of "dry?" Is it "blown with air? Is it "sprayed with light oil and then blown dry with air?" Or is it "cleaned with light oil, cleaned with a powerful solvent, and then blown dry?" I will GUARANTEE you that methods 1 and 2 will have some minimal amount of lubricant left on the metal, and only method 3 will be anything close to truly "dry." Even then, different solvents leave different residues. Brake cleaner will leave almost nothing, carb cleaner will leave very light hydrocarbons, Varsol (or equivalent) will leave heavier potentially lubricating hydrocarbons.
...unlike the quality Ford and Chrysler engines I can remember finding leaks past exaust manifold studs that went right into cooling passages.
It helps to know which holes are through holes and to use the correct sealer or teflon goo product as necessary. I like to use a rubber- tipped blowgun for confirmation (and to clean out the hole).
Toyota MDT in MO
Having a regular bolt/stud penetrating the water jacket is just a foolish design in my opinion. It opens up the end of the bolt for corrosion that can destroy the threads when it comes time to do a job like changing the waterpump, and having to put RTV on bolt threads to seal them into the block is just idiotic. Why not redesign the casting a bit to ensure that the bolts/studs go into a hole that doesn't get washed in water while the engine is running.
Chris
I always bought new head bolts (and whatever other new parts I needed) for the few engines I overhauled/rebuilt so I know they were clean.I also had a Haynes and a Chilton's repair book for each vehicle and I just went by the books.Eveything worked out A OK for me, no problems.I have owned a bunch of old vehicles before that had flat head side valve engines before.Actually, my 1914 T Model Ford car and my 1948 Willys Jeep have flat head side valve engines too.I like those kinds of engines best. Flat Heads Rule! cuhulin ................................................... As seen on WebTV. And I don't want an iPhone either :{) ....................................................
Manifold studs, water pump housing bolts, accessory bolts, all those are perfectly reasonable to run into a water jacket (at least in a cast iron head or block) because there's about 1/8 as much tension loading. Heads are in a completely different category.
I'm got no manufacturing knowledge to back this up, but it has probably got to do with the extra cost of blind drilling/tapping verses through drilling/tapping. I assume less cost because of the extra care (care = time) needed to make blind threads. The other concern could be that the (given) casting is too thin near the end of the bolt travel to make it worth blind drilling.
Again, those are just educated guesses. It does all come down to $$ in the end. That's a promise.
Toyota MDT in MO
Damn, changed sentence midway through, but not completely... Corrected:
*I've* got no manufacturing knowledge to back this up, but it has probably got to do with the extra cost of blind drilling/tapping verses through drilling/tapping. I assume less cost because of the extra care (care = time) needed to make blind threads. The other concern could be that the (given) casting is too thin near the end of the bolt travel to make it worth blind drilling.Again, those are just educated guesses. It does all come down to $$ in the end. That's a promise.
Toyota MDT in MO
Plus the chevy small block has all those extra head bolts. That's a lot of unneeded cast iron in the water jacket.
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