rap87

Getting my heads back from the shop tommorow, have the felpro head gaskets and felpro bolts. My haynes book has conflicting torque for the aluminum heads and I want to make sure I have the proper torque readings for the install on Thursday. I am planning on buying the factory manual here soon, but its taken me 1 1/2 months to save up the money to get this far, hopefully someone can help me with this bit of information I need. So, what is the proper tq for a 1996 aluminum lt1 head to cast iron engine, for the bolts. I also have the order in the haynes to go by in terms of tightening, but if anyone had the paged scanned or w/e that would be great to. Thanks.

rap87

Hope someone can help, I am pretty excited about getting the thing back together, I want to make sure I got the right procedure though. Hope someone can do me this big favor, pictures of completion will be posted as well, with many thanks

JAKE

Can't lay my hands on my FSM for the 96, but the HAYNES book shows one of the newer torque procedures for the 96.

Step 1 is to torque them to 22 ft.lbs

Then tighten the short bolts an additional 67 degrees and the medium and long bolts an additional 60 degrees.

Says to use Permatex #2 on the threads.

Last week when I installed my AFRs on a stroker I'm building I went with AFR's recommended spec.

Jake

VenkmanP

Torque your new head bolts according to the instructions from the bolt manufacturer.

rap87

Its only 22ft lbs total though, I thought heads go on a big tighter than that.

VR'92

There is also quite an involved bolt sequence.

You really need a Helms Manual.

rap87

I have a manual from autozone and it has the bolt sequence I am just wanting to double check its accuracy.

Mark C5

The manual you have is not a Helm's manual. Helm's manuals are also called FSM's (field service manuals) and are what the techs at dealerships use. The head bolts on the LT1 are intially torqued to 22 ft/lbs and then are further tightened a designated number of degrees as measured with a special tool.

rap87

What other type of tool do you need to measure these degrees?

Mark C5

A J 36660 Torque Angle Meter

JAKE

AirFlow Research says all aluminum heads must be torqued to 65-70 ft./lbs. I torqued mine to 65 on the short (lower) bolts and 70 ft./lbs. on all the others.

This split torque setting is because the much shorter column length of the lower bolts don't allow them to stretch as much. You'll achieve the same clamping force at 65 ft./lbs. on the short bolts that it takes 70 ft./lbs. to achieve on the longer bolts.

I'm using ARP head bolts, not the factory bolts. I HIGHLY recommend the ARP bolts, using them you can go with the 65-70 ft./lbs torque setting with confidence.

Jake

STL94LT1

I torqued the stock head bolts on my LT1 to 65 lb/ft, using 3 passes to get to that torque setting. It has ran 5 years without a problem using this method.

rap87

Does that whole degree deal with that tool, give you the same effect as using a torque wrench and making three passes to get it to 65/70 pds of tq?

rap87

Also, one last question I had in regards to the head bolts itself. I got the felpro ones and they have some white stuff on the threads. Would these be pre-applied permatex? It says in the lil slip that if it has pre-applied (forget the name) not to add anything else to the threads. Sound correct?

VR'92

The Factory Service manual explains which bolts tap into the coolant system.

Along with my ARP bolts I also used their special ARP sealant for the water jacket bolts.

VenkmanP

That "whole degree deal with that tool" is for the stock GM bolts which are TTY. Aftermarket bolts are generally not TTY, although I know nothing about fel-pro bolts.

Then tighten your bolts according to the instructions that fel-pro gives you.

rap87

Alright I appreciate it, I am going to go with the 65/70, that matches up with what the manual says and what the guy who did my heads say. Lastly, the felpro bolts say nothing about using washers, although my ARP bolts came with washers and were used. Is, that something that is required for all bolt installs or only per manufacturer suggestion?