Hello.

Car is a -91 vette..
The engine whas put together last spring. So i used last summer to do the break-in ( i put around 3100 miles on it ). Now the car is in the garage, so I decided to check everything out.
I re-torqued the headbolts. Used the factory manual spec for alu heads( 65ft/lbs for the "upper" and 60ft/lbs for the short ones near the exhaust ports ) just as I did during assmebly.
The "top" bolts where fine. But the shorter "lower" bolts needed between 0.11inch-0.19inch tightend before the Torque Wrenche klicked. So i whent ahead and re-torque them all..
Is this to be expected?
What does your experince tell you?
The engine runs fine, consume no oil or water...


Thanks

 

I would have left them alone, unless the head gasket manufacturer specifically stated they should be retorqued.

 

My experience tells me how far we have come.
I've remember doing flat-head engines with the fat "cheese-sandwich" gasket that you had to make at least 4 passes torqueing down and if you didn't retorque it again after it reached operating temperature, that gasket was temporary.
Then chevy introduced the shim gasket and things have gotten better ever since...
It doesn't hurt anything to retorque, but as Ape said, unnecessary.