Need some head bolt questions

Have a 99 5.0GL. I rebuilt the engine. I am a car guy so when it came to the heads, I was used to torque-ing the bolts. However, Volvo uses torgue with angle. (Please hold the "you should have done it right the first time". I am paying for my mistake).

I torgued and then estimated the angles.:facepalm: When I finished all the bolts, some were still loose. I went back and tried to tighten them. This meant that I did not torgue correctly.

I went on to finish motor, install and take for a test run (only for about 30 minutes total). It ran pretty good but only about 90%. Got back to fine tune and found a little bit of water leaking down the oustide of the block from between the block and head gasket. Obviously I didn't tighten the head bolts properly. Now here is my questions for any experts.

1. Could I go back and retighten in the proper sequence using an angle meter and get sufficient results? This is obviously the easiest choice.
2. If not, should I replace the bolts when replacing the gasket? The bolts are new and were just replaced with this rebuild.

Thanks for your help.

Re: Need some head bolt questions

Sounds like you didn't start with new head bolts when you put the engine together, The TTY bolts once stretched will not give you the proper clamping force when reused.
You need to start over again by replacing the head gaskets and installing new head bolts.

Re: Need some head bolt questions

You do not need to replace the head bolts, and they are NOT TTY bolts. They don't even come close to the yield point.
The angle torque is just more accurate than using a torque wrench.

To the original poster, did you use the torque wrench for the first pass?
If you missed that, they would be loose.

Cylinder Head Bolt
First Pass all Bolt in Sequence ........................ 22 ft. lb. (30 N?m)
Final Pass all Bolts in Sequence:
Short Bolt .................................................... 55 degrees
Medium Bolt.................................................. 65 degrees
Long Bolt ..................................................... 75 degrees

Re: Need some head bolt questions

Thanks for your input.

I did use NEW bolts when installing.

I used a torque wrench and set them all first to the 22 ft lb as described. I then tried to estimate the angle (bad choice). To test my estimation, I went back and checked to see if my torque wrench would turn any of them at around 65 ft lb. Which of course it did.

I have purchased an angle meter for my torque wrench.

My big question is, do you think I can just go back and re-torque without having to replace the gasket?

Re: Need some head bolt questions

My big question is, do you think I can just go back and re-torque without having to replace the gasket?

Click to expand...

I would replace the gaskets. What if you went to far on some of the bolts (over tightened)