head bolt pop sound
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Staging Lane
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 50
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head bolt pop sound So I went to tighten my new gm head bolts and then on the first bolt I torqued to 22 before actually hitting 22lbs I heard a loud pop. this worried me so I took them out and pulled the head. would it be clear you cracked you block or would it be impossible to see.
any info helps
any info helps
I've never done heads on my car but I am almost positive I read another thread similar to this one a few months back and they were saying the pop was normal. You may be able to find it searching. Idk just what I remember reading
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TECH Addict
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 2,481
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From: PA/MD
I bought a set of head bolts from autozone one time for my ls1 and as I was torqueing them heard a loud pop.....pulled the bolt out and it had broke with just one thread holding it together.....next day ordered ARP headbolts and returned the stock bolt to autozone....so check your bolts closely, you might have gotten lucky
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I had it happen to me, there was just a little coolant at the bottom of the bolt hole, when the tech torqued it down we heard a little pop. Looked at the side of the block and saw coolant leaking from a hairline crack.
Teching In
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 39
Likes: 0
From: Huntington, TX
I learned early on, that blowing out the bolt holes w/compressed air doesn't always get out all the water/coolant. I had to make a long tube that reached the bottom of the bolt holes and then blow out all the water.
Make sure bolt holes are clean of old sealant and coolant...when I did my head swap I heard a lot of scary creeks and pops when I was torquing bolts, must be normal since you are STrETCHInG the bolts....the arp thread chaser works best to clean threads
If you hydro lock the bolts by compressing coolant in the head bolt holes it would prob crack in the place where the highest stress is which would prob be at bottom of the bolt hole if I had to guess..
Only way you can tell its hydro locking is by feeling resistance right before you get the bolt fully seated in the last few threads...which could easily be overlooked, that's why I spent a lot of hours just cleaning and prepping stuff during my swap...lots of compressed air for those bolts holes...toucan even make a tap with your old head bolt just a flute on either side of one of the long bolts that way there is somewhere for the sealant and other junk to go...