Hey volks, I always thought cylinder head bolts were a single use only as they’re stretch bolts but reading the Bentley it states that’s only necessary on diesel and 16v models. Don’t want to be waste good parts so wondering if you guys would reuse them on an 8v?
Personally I wouldn’t reuse any head bolts regardless of what the Bentley manual says - I was always told use them once and then bin them.
The procedure for tightening them should tell you that you have to replace them, as the degrees turned tightening them 'stretches' the bolt to give it it's tightening (clamping) torque. It's late/early so the above looks like a ramble, hope you understand it!
Not only the above but how long have they been in there? They have been in use for years and many miles. No doubt in my mind - replace.
I’ve got half a set of 16v head bolts in my boot if you want to live life on the edge and do half. But I echo what’s said above. Especially as I just had to repair a car because someone didn’t use a new stretch bolt in a blind hole and it snapped
I did an ARP stud conversion, you can re-use the ARP's. Any angle tightened bolt should be deemed one use only as Gary says.
Jeez feel like the odd guy out here ? ...I use them second time over on 3x 8v Golf head gasket jobs and 2 BMW e28 six motors ,no issues in both motors and proven after many miles. My point is if the block is cleaned out properly with no coolant in the holes and clean as the bolts should be as well as rust free ,good to go. If you stick to the correct initial torque then be exact with the final angle setting don't see an issue as I have proved . Only ever used quality head gaskets ,Victor Reinz are my go to for these and have proved to be up to it. I'am ready to get flamed on this but just talking about my experience ,cheers.
Not at all. Thanks for speaking up. It’s all too easy to go with group opinions and not speak up. Your point is valid and valued.
yeah the bentley and VW workshop manual also agree that 8v bolts can be re-used, so long as you know the bolts are good quality and have been tightened to the correct torque in the past you should be fine
That's it though RJ, how do you know unless you were the one to fit them. They're not expensive, I always change them.
yeah I mean if you've beein in there and done it, fine otherwise replace (I just replace anyway regardless but yeah)
Off on a bit of a tangent but I watch a couple of Utubers from Germany who tinker with Land Rovers. Their channel’s called ”LR Time”. Was watching them rebuild the fabled TDV6 after a crank snapping. Rebuilding the bottom end Land Rover workshop manual states that the stretch bolts for securing the crankshaft caps can be reused 3 times. An odd one init.
I can't believe this topic is still dragging on - Brother Rustbuster make a decision one way or the other.
I’ve read that getting them engines to run right after a crank snap, usually due to a failed oil pump, is almost impossible as it does so much damage to the bottom end. Let’s hope mine doesn’t break, it’s expensive when stuff goes wrong on it
I agree but tended to be convenance as headgaskets don't fail when you have the parts in most situations,cost was not an issue but very hard to get them in my country and once I proved my (engineer) theory I didn't look back. Been watching those LR TDV6 vids on youtube,what a rubbish engine ...believe it is rated as the worst diesel build ever.
‘Tis a bad engine isn’t it. I had a friend at work buy a brand new Defender for over 100k and the crank snapped with only 800 miles on the clock. LR said it needs a new engine, he said I want my money back, and got it.
Yes the manuals and the bolt instructions say replace and folks just follow that like sheep because they believe that is the best durable method and do not want to "risk it". But most of the folk commenting have never really observed what happens when you reuse the bolts and closely monitor what the engine does over a few thousand miles of constant use. So "risk" what? I have reused bolts in the past on several of my own engines, which I knew the history of. Both on 16v fibre and MLS gaskets. 8v, 20v, VR5 also, even VR6. I can do this as I have a a fleet of old and newer VW cars. Never snapped a bolt yet. Tightend them down until I "felt the pressure", or with a torque wrench to the recommended spec. Both ways tried. Ultimately the 60Nm plus 90 then 90 degs will result in maybe 140 Nm of torque, just done in stages to yeild the bolt material slowly. However, what can happen in the long term, after 10s of thousands of miles, the head will naturally distort and because the bolts are reused, the clamp is not even, and you can blow gaskets in the fire ring areas with enough cylinder pressure. It will take quite while though and it depends on the spec of the engine, how much cylinder pressure it runs and how hot it might get. If you do not use the car a lot, well you might get away with never having to pull the head again. So you can take a punt and send it and it will be generally fine in the short term, if the bolts are the originals. Or just spend an additional 50 quid or so and get a new set, use a new MLS type gasket, make sure the block deck is clean and make sure the head is skimmed to be flat. That is my practical advise on both options, up to you want you decide.
Just looking at the crankshaft there is no wonder they snap where they do, there is no material to take the load. Apparently they adapted it from use in Front Wheel drive cars to fit into AWD and that's when the deficiency reared it's ugly head (can put more load on the engine before wheel spin), plus they are heavy cars to start with. Believe they are called Lion engines?. Regardless I'd weary if owning a car with that engine fitted personally. I think Ford had a hand in the design, I've had plenty of dealings with their Powershift 6DCT450 so no surprises it didn't turn out the best..
