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Do you use them? Seems the bolt sets don’t come with them but I see them offered separately. Do some bolt designs not require? How to determine if needed?
When I last did this job in 2011 I used Felpro bolts, no washers. Reason I’m doing this job now is that the bolt on the corner of #1 by the exhaust port sheared, which I discovered after a slow weep of coolant. I should have the head off this afternoon to see what is going on, but not sure I’ll find much evidence of what occurred that caused the bolt to shear after all this time.
Typically any aluminum head uses them. No downside to using them. If your replacing head bolts, spend the few extra $ and go with ARP.
A head bolt sheared off? Had to be old bolts that were reused to do that.
Use the lube ARP supplies, and make sure to use liquid pipe sealant with Teflon on the threads of the bolts.
Last edited by FostersPerformance; May 26, 2021 at 08:48 AM.
Typically any aluminum head uses them. No downside to using them. If your replacing head bolts, spend the few extra $ and go with ARP.
A head bolt sheared off? Had to be old bolts that were reused to do that.
Use the lube ARP supplies, and make sure to use liquid pipe sealant with Teflon on the threads of the bolts.
Absolutely, ARP is first rate stuff. OEM can't compare.
Since the hex side had a “tooth” that somewhat bit into the threaded part stuck in the block I did try to spin it out by exerting down pressure and rotating (head was still on at that point) that obviously didn’t work but that effort is why the break looks smoothed over. It had a sharper break appearance initially.
Even with the head off, I couldn’t get a good purchase on the bit stuck in the block. Covered the bores with clean tin foil and a leather welding blanket on top of that and tacked a nut to it and it spun out easily.
Had to be a fractured bolt to begin with and was defective from the start. Only real explanation. Only torsional load is during the torque, and that probably cracked it and heat cycles (and corrosion) made it fail.
Good thing you were able to remove it!
Only thing I could think is faulty from the get go, 10 yrs to fail!
I had already ordered new head bolts prior to this thread, Mahle this time, as I didn’t want to go with FelPro since they let me down once before. Have to imagine this is a rare scenario and I’ll be ok with almost any head bolt.
As far as washers, seems headbolts with a large shoulder under the hex are listed as washer not required. Is there risk in adding them anyway? I didn’t see any galling on the heads, seems the large shoulder works.
You guys adding any additional sealer to the bolts that come with sealer pre applied?
If there is no issues on the heads, then no need to add washers. Its just typical to have them on aluminum parts. If they don't have it I wouldn't worry about it.
And I always use more sealant. Cant go wrong.
I've had high strength brand new bolts snap when finger threading them in, just defective.
Hardened washers are good idea, not only will they prevent damage to the head but they help the torque/bolt stretch to be more consistent. You can buy just head bolt washer sets, I bought a few diff brands to compare for a 2nd washer video when I get around to it. LOL one brand I thought was a box of 50 and turned out that the box I got off ebay was 500 LOL same part number, just one more zero and a heck of a deal! I'd just get a bolt and some washers, don't need ARP for everything but they are nice or even a house brand set like jegs/summit. Be sure to compare the length of any new bolts if you go that route.
LT1, use washers with head bolts?
