'92 SC - head gasket - proper head bolt torqueing procedure?

[kaje71]

Well, it's my first time under the hood of one of these bad boys but, I'm glad to say, after about 3 hours of wrenching I've finally found the heads!

Could someone walk me through the procedure to torque the heads back down? My understanding to this point is that you torque the heads to ???lbs, reassemble everything, start the car, let it warm to operating temp. and shut it down. At this point I think you grab a beer, cry if you need to, and dream about 12psi of boost sucking you back in the seat because even though she runs, she's not even close to being done yet. Now, you pull the valve covers back off...and unless I'm missing something, that requires you to disassemble darn near everything you just got done bolting back on...then one by one, loosen each head bolt, torque to ???lbs and then give it a 90 degree twist.

Does anyone think that alot of these gaskets go out because someone didn't take the 5-6 hours to re-torque?

One more...I had thought about purchaseing a rebuilt engine from Hiperformer.com, the guy there told me they recommended re-torqueing the head bolts after 500 miles. Is it safe to drive the car...or even better does the car need to be driven a little before re-torqueing?

Thanks!

[DMS825]

I'm not familar with retorqueing the bolts after the engine has been run. You did use NEW head bolts right? My book shows tightening the bolts in seven steps. 1) 37lbs 2) 45lbs 3) 52lbs 4) 59lbs 5) loosen 2 or 3 turns 6) 50lbs 7) tighten 90 degrees. Sequence is

5 1 3 7
----------->Front
6 2 4 8

Paint a line on the tops of the bolts after the first step to aid in keeping track of those which have been turned to the proper angle.

PS - If it's been driven after the gaskets let loose, there's a chance the crank bearings won't last long.