Bolt torque & re-torque, Do it the right way. Head gaskets that last longer cause more equal force.

[@wildrosegarage4208]

You know after watching this it pisses me off I have not been doing this on my motors. When I work as a pipefitter and am bolting up a flange with a bad fit up I crank the bolts trying to suck her together and when they get to tight I wack them with a hammer and get way more out of them again. I know this trick but have never done it on a motor but I should have and should have known better thanks a lot for bringing this up. When I bolt together my bottom end I will bring this up and give all props to you. Keep doing your thing. I love to learn from guys like yourself. My hats off to you.

[@firstrespondergarage]

Thank you, You know it seems like the older I get the more I found out what was right underneath my nose but I never applied it. We all learn from each other.👍

[@wildrosegarage4208]

@@firstrespondergarage I hear you. Better to have this brought to my attention now than never. I think what it does is when you torque it down there is friction on the threads and when you hit it it releases the tension/binding/friction for a millisecond and then you get more out of it with the same torque applied because you are re torquing with less tension/binding/friction the second time.

[@firstrespondergarage]

@@wildrosegarage4208 yes that makes sense. 👍👍

[@barryaugustine1298]

Its definitely worth a try anything a bit .... Thnks Guy

[@wildrosegarage4208]

Make sense to me. Nice trick thanks for the great tip and the kind words buddy. Nolan.

[@jbslittleshop2897]

Good info sir!!👍

[@BuckDOESIT]

Cool Stuff!

[@HeidiFegles]

Funny but in the mill wright world when you are installing huge bolts you have one person hit the head of the bolt with a 8 lbs sledge hammer while another person tightens it with as much might as they can with a cheater bar. But be careful on smaller bolts you can over stretch them but tapping on them lightly with a brass baller and retorquing back to the spec was actually tested to work

[@MrWill73]

Great tip brother!!!👍👍👍👍

[@HeidiFegles]

Just did my Subaru. Torqued the arp studs to 90. Took a small ball peen tapped the studs lightly. Dropped to 81 ftlbs. On an electric dialed in torque wrench. I believe it gets the hydraulic tension out in the lube. But I then retorqued to 90ftlbs tapped again didn’t move the second time. Then I assembled the motor and made 400 wheel torque in my 06 Subaru sti and no head gasket failure. 22 psi. It works verified. But also lightly hit them with a small hammer. Not a 20lbs sledge.

[@antoineagius4642]

Hi Sir, when you have a degree last torque how you will re-torque it ? Thanks

[@GuillermaArteaga]

Thank you

[@user-cd2bh7lm1c]

Great tip. I have a Subaru with 240k miles. Do you think it would be a good idea to retorque the head bolts? I’ve heard the Subaru engines can get leaks in the cylinder head. Cheers!

[@Mr.Beastforpresident]

One of my cylinders is burning Antifreeze literally a drop 💧 just enough to cause a rough idle. In 3 months or so I have to add a cup of Antifreeze. The cylinder is the first one closest to the radiator on one of the heads. What I’m wanting to do and want your advice on this is to retorque/tighten the factory 4 head bolts around that particular cylinder. What I’m concerned about is 2 ✌️ things, 1 is should I? being they’re torque to yield bolts and have already stretched. And 2 is should I tap with the hammer 🔨 before doing so? ( The head bolts have never been touched or replaced before ) the truck has 280,000+ miles. Aluminum block and heads.

[@firstrespondergarage]

Torque to yield are the exception for hammer. Once the gasket goes thats it. Wether it be tolerance/fitment or torque. I have reused TTY bolts successfully, but I dont use a torque wrench on them. I feel when they stretch. If they get looser as they stretch they get replaced. Usually the third time is cut off point if you feel the stretch. If you follow the directions and keep having it stretch youll be lucky to get a second torque.. replace the gasket and check the surfaces. Just make sure its the head gasket and not the intake or crack in the head.

[@Mr.Beastforpresident]

@@firstrespondergarage Right, I thought so and was thinking so that TTY bolts have reached their stretch when initially installed. Torquing them further would stretch them even further. But my initial thought was what if they weren’t completely torqued to spec from the factory because the truck began to do this at very low mileage 19,000 miles and that particular sparkplugs insulator was orangish brown and slightly wetish gummish the two times I changed the plugs at 100,000 and 200,000 At 19,000 miles it had this intermittent sputter at idle. Overtime it put wear on the motor mounts to where initially I thought that was the problem and changed them and it helped about 60% of the vibration THEN I finally realized it was consuming and burning coolant via the signs on the plug and periodically low coolant level.

[@Creativetooling_101]

I'm wondering the same thing!- but I replaced the head gaskets years ago and used ARP torque in bolts instead of the stretchy ones. So I should be able to reuse them. Do you think I can re torque them and possibly fix the coolant seeping into the oil?

[@jimyoungblood1687]

I work on briggs and stratten vtwin engines. they have a habit of blowing head gaskets. Can I use your hammer method on small engine head bolts to improve torque??