Cylinder head bolts

[George Liquor]

Well after the recent engine rebuild i posted earlier the head gasket began leaking pressure into the cooling system, no oil just pressure, i could smell exhaust in the header tank. I followed the script as to replacing all the head bolts with new and torque down in stages up to 40nm then 180 degrees for the 17mm bolts so i was puzzled although i did not get the head skimmed as it had not overheated, anyway once i got down to the head bolts again i tested them for tightness before undoing them, i worked up from 40nm in 10nm increments and got to 100nm at which point one bolt started going round and round with no increase in resistance all the other bolts were still clicking the torque wrench, the bolt had yielded before the others, i am new to stretch bolts and would like to know from those more experienced than myself when angle tightening a stretch bolt should it be felt to yield a little or does that mean it has failed, i have had the head skimmed now and it is back on with new Elring bolts the first unbranded batch were from Shirleys (the gasket shop) as it is near me and have since read a post on here that says Shirleys are not up to Ford spec? on tightening the elring bolts i felt no yield i have yet to start the engine as im waiting for injector bolts to arrive, also does anyone have a ball park figure for the torque applied after the 180 degree angle turn
Regards, George

[metalworker0]

Shirleys ..i remember - ebay seller that i bought my kit off .

rover 420 i rebuilt in 2006

MLS head gasket ...middle layer had wave....so had been tacked together wrongly ..i put it together slept on it ......well tried to sleep on it .....got up early pulled apart and ordered payen gasket

His camshaft seals began leaking oil after 6 months getting worse over time....

learnt a bit since then ..and how original rover seals had spiral lips inside them to drive oil back in. subtle differences and better rubber..china may look the same but not under a magnifying glass ...or use!

oh yes subtle ......never knew it had a "b" in it ...you learn all the time

Yes, think your bolts were defective...and proved so by your new ones feeling positive.

You don't have to buy ford ..but you can stick to top brands like Payen , Elring, not china crap ...as i found, its too much work to have to do it all again

What did the bolt look like that was going round and round,when you took it out ..are you sure the threads in the block weren't damaged.

oh yeah the proper ford manual for this will have details like ...if the bolts threads are oiled or not or if you leave it a certain amount of time before the next stage of tightening.

oh and there are things like ...may be oil or water in the bolts holes that may prevent the bolt going fully home ..with hydraulic lock up.

all the best.mark

[andz327]

Well after the recent engine rebuild i posted earlier the head gasket began leaking pressure into the cooling system, no oil just pressure, i could smell exhaust in the header tank. I followed the script as to replacing all the head bolts with new and torque down in stages up to 40nm then 180 degrees for the 17mm bolts so i was puzzled although i did not get the head skimmed as it had not overheated, anyway once i got down to the head bolts again i tested them for tightness before undoing them, i worked up from 40nm in 10nm increments and got to 100nm at which point one bolt started going round and round with no increase in resistance all the other bolts were still clicking the torque wrench, the bolt had yielded before the others, i am new to stretch bolts and would like to know from those more experienced than myself when angle tightening a stretch bolt should it be felt to yield a little or does that mean it has failed, i have had the head skimmed now and it is back on with new Elring bolts the first unbranded batch were from Shirleys (the gasket shop) as it is near me and have since read a post on here that says Shirleys are not up to Ford spec? on tightening the elring bolts i felt no yield i have yet to start the engine as im waiting for injector bolts to arrive, also does anyone have a ball park figure for the torque applied after the 180 degree angle turn
Regards, George

No that's why you go buy angles

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[George Liquor]

Shirleys ..i remember - ebay seller that i bought my kit off .

rover 420 i rebuilt in 2006

MLS head gasket ...middle layer had wave....so had been tacked together wrongly ..i put it together slept on it ......well tried to sleep on it .....got up early pulled apart and ordered payen gasket

His camshaft seals began leaking oil after 6 months getting worse over time....

learnt a bit since then ..and how original rover seals had spiral lips inside them to drive oil back in. subtle differences and better rubber..china may look the same but not under a magnifying glass ...or use!

oh yes subtle ......never knew it had a "b" in it ...you learn all the time

Yes, think your bolts were defective...and proved so by your new ones feeling positive.

You don't have to buy ford ..but you can stick to top brands like Payen , Elring, not china crap ...as i found, its too much work to have to do it all again

What did the bolt look like that was going round and round,when you took it out ..are you sure the threads in the block weren't damaged.

oh yeah the proper ford manual for this will have details like ...if the bolts threads are oiled or not or if you leave it a certain amount of time before the next stage of tightening.

oh and there are things like ...may be oil or water in the bolts holes that may prevent the bolt going fully home ..with hydraulic lock up.

all the best.mark

Thanks for that Mark, the new gasket is Elring also, i cleaned out the bolt holes in the block and used a little oil under the bolt heads before installation, i checked the over stretched bolt against the others that had also been used and found it to be 2mm longer at 160mm from the under side of the bolt head, the others were 158mm. As an earlier post i read said the Shirley bolts have 10.9 stamped on the heads the correct figure is 11.2 i believe, maybe i should let Shirley know im about ten minutes from them actually they sold me the new Elring kit i am using now, more expensive than the other stuff but cheaper in the long run i hope. I wish i had kept going when testing the tightness of the previous bolts before removing just to see what torque it would have taken to turn a little more, just curious.

[George Liquor]

Up and running again, in my haste i used the old injector bolts as the new ones have not arrived yet, i annealed the copper washers first and all seems good no leaks and no bubbles in the header tank and a soft top hose the only fault is the temp sensor is not working anymore. I took the head to Heads r us Bradford for skimming, sound guy only took him 40 mins, i wonder if it was the steam clean he did afterword that did the temp sensor, anyway its easy enough to swap out. One thing i noticed when the head was off i could see the spray pattern of the diesel on top of the pistons so i assume the injector tips are worn, i will be getting them replaced asap i dont need melted pistons, has anyone used injector cleaner that goes in with the fuel to good effect?