What's the concensus regarding head bolt replacement? I'm just about ready to reinstall the head on my 22RE after a valve job and a couple of friends are arguing about the need for replacing my headbolts with brand new ones. One of the guys thinks it would be alright to use the old bolts and the other says that the old bolts have already been stressed, heated, stressed, heated, etc... so they should be replaced with new ones since the old ones cannot be reliably re-torqued and be expected to stay torqued to the proper specs. Anyone out there know which way to go to get the most reliable engine when it's finished? Thanks. Jerry
Headbolt Replacement
Feb 10, 2004
3 Replies
Jerry,
Your friend that is saying to replace them is correct. Head bolts are TTY which is torque to yield.. They are only designed to be used once. If you reinstall your old ones your run the risk of breaking one and then having to take the engine back apart. Spend the money buy the new bolts and save the headaches.
Tony
Definitely replace them. As was said before, they are torque to yeild and are only good for one shot. I would also suggest replacing them with studs and not bolts. Bolts can still be a problem down the road by allowing the head to move some whereas studs are torqued to much higher specs and don't allow anywhere near as much movement. Just make sure you get the right torque specs for the studs you use. They get torqued something like 25ftlbs higher than bolts.
Chris
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