just a quick question, is ok to reuse cylinder head bolts or intake bolts? i have reused intake bolts before but never removed a head before so i am not sure. -jon

 

Intake bolts are fine to re-use. Just clean 'em up.

Head bolts can be re-used as long as they're not torque to yield bolts. I don't believe 91's had TTY bolts. Check your manual. If it has just a straight torque value you can re-use them. If it says anything about torque + 1/4 turn or degrees of a turn, don't re-use them.

 

AFAIK, no Gen I SBC used a TTY head bolt, at least not stock. Not even BBCs used them, even on aluminum/aluminum engines. There are enough bolts in proper positions in SBC heads that they provive plenty of clamping force on any type head gasket, so TTY bolts are not necessary. Mr. Cole knew just what the heck he was doing.

 

Clean up the threads like on a wire wheel, this ensures you reach your proper torque.

 

ok, thanks guys this saves me about $100. thanks for the quick response.

 

ARP Head bolts are $40 and Intake bolts are $10. Where the heck are you buying crap?

 

ARP main bolts are only about $20, but head bolts are $80 last time I checked. I think that's at summit.

I re-used my stock bolts as well, FWIW. Make sure you use a non hardening teflon sealant on head and intake bolts eh?

 

ok will do.

 

Right.... for a stock rebuild, if the head bolts are good, clean them up and re-use them. And the thing about the sealer is spot-on as well: in the SBC block, every head bolt hole goes RIGHT DIRECTLY INTO the water jacket. Use the Loctite "high-temp thread sealer", comes in a tube on a little card, you can get it at VatoZone and Advance and such as well as, no doubt, "real" parts stores. The center 4 intake bolts go into the crankcase and will leak oil if not sealed so do those as well; and since that stuff has Teflon, it makes a WONDERFUL thread lube, and will help keep from tearing up threads anywhere near water passages (where they often get all rusty), so use it on the other intake bolts and the water outlet bolts as well.

 

Black Chromemoly bolts from GM is $26 a set

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...9&autoview=sku

ARP is $60 now... They are like $40 when I bought mine.

http://store.summitracing.com/egnsea...=KeywordSearch


Next time I will go with studs though. You ever see those top fuel dragsters that the crew was putting on cylinder heads? They take a 1/2" impact and impact the bolt for 15 seconds, then get a breaker bar with a cheater bar and give it a half of turn extra.

 

yes but those top fuel dragsters have a little bit more cylinder pressure then anyone on this board has. On all of our engines that we build, we just use ARP bolts up to 14:1 compression, unless our customers ask for studs.

 

a shop just told me that i have to use new head bolts since i am going to alum. heads. is this true? or can i still use the stock ones if i clean them up?

 

If the bolts are in good shape you can reuse them. When installing aluminum heads, it is often common practice to use washers with the bolts, and to dab some oil on the washers to get the most accurate torque reading.

 

Although, if you use the Teflon paste on the washers, it's nearly as good a lube; and it's a sealer TOO.

 

so even with alum. heads i can still reuse the bolts?

 

yes.

 

It may be that the aluminum heads require a longer bolt. And is why the shop mentioned you needed new ones. Don't know, just a possibility.

RBob.

 

ok thanks. i will reuse them if they look ok.