LT1-LT4 Modifications 1993-97 Gen II Small Block V8

torquing heads

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Old Feb 25, 2007 | 01:36 AM
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Default torquing heads

all rite i noticed my head is leaching some coolant between 5 and 7. I was hoping i could just recheck the torque on the outside bolts without pulling the valve cover? Would this be okay?
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Old Feb 25, 2007 | 08:02 AM
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If you have coolant leaking, you might want to change the Head Gaskets..
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Old Feb 25, 2007 | 08:23 AM
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well i thought if the bolts had loosened any that could cause them to leak without the gasket being bad? I had 2 mechanics tell me to try re-torquing first.

is there any way to pull the head without pulling the intake? And I am not going to replace both. No way I don't want to touch the passenger side. Just hate to pull it all back apart 2 weeks after i put it back together. I did the intake oil leak repair and bad thing is i put it together were the intake gaskets won't be reuseable.
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Old Feb 25, 2007 | 08:31 AM
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Alright..you didn't mention that. Re-tourqe them, the drivers side Valve Cover is easy to take off. How did you torque them the first time?
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Old Feb 25, 2007 | 08:55 AM
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I haven't touched the heads. And I have had the valve cover off just didn't know if i needed top pull it off and do the whole circular pattern or just try retorqing the ones outside. Sweet Will do this today and I will pull the valve cover..

Question were you on the syty.net board? There was a merv on that forumn about 5 years ago when i was there?
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Old Feb 25, 2007 | 09:06 AM
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im confused. did somebody else build the engine? just noticed you have le heads but never touched them. if the gaskets are new you can try the stop leak pills. ive heard new gaskets seep a bit till they fully seal and the pills help them seal quicker. used them on mine and no coolant leak. i would torque the head bolts in the pattern though. pulling the valve cover is not hard at all
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Old Feb 25, 2007 | 09:16 AM
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i bought the car in october with all mentioned mods except for tune which i had done. The owner needed to get rid of it and needed some maintenance. So I have just been fixing whats been going wrong, replacing stuff like plugs and wires trying to get the car back to tip top shape. I am installing 4.10, msd opti, msd coil next week. And just trying to tie off the little things like this. I figured if the coolant was leaching out it would be okay to retorque cause it wasn't like a pice of gasket was missing. I have to top the radiator off about every 4 days and will only add 1/16 to an 1/8 of a gallon of water/coolant...I also just recently ran a pint of flush through the system and changed over to the green coolant. So there may have been some pills put through it to fix the leak and I flushed it away. I hate to use a pill but if torqing dosesn't work I'll prolly try that before pulling the head.
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Old Feb 25, 2007 | 09:50 AM
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you can try retorquing it, it could possibly be that when the new heads were put in before, new head bolts were not. the torque spec i got for my heads when i pulled them were a torque to yield spec, and you are supposed to get new bolts if the spec is a torque to yield.
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Old Feb 25, 2007 | 11:33 AM
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Good luck.
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Old Feb 25, 2007 | 11:42 AM
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Originally Posted by dafaic
Question were you on the syty.net board? There was a merv on that forumn about 5 years ago when i was there?
No.. I have been on here for about a year. There is only 1 merv..
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Old Feb 25, 2007 | 12:05 PM
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dude.....only fords leak coolent from the heads and still be ok to run. Replace the head gaskets and it will run better too.
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Old Feb 26, 2007 | 12:17 PM
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well retorqued the heads. found one that turned at 50 2 turned at 60 and found 3 that turned at 70 including the one over where it was leaking. So all together at 70 (6) bolts turned. And all the head bolts are arp's. I let the car idle and warm up to about 190-200 went for a drive and came back and I think it has stopped! Give it a few days and we will see...
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