Re-Torquing Head Bolts

[photousa]

Hey SaabScott, following is part of a quote posted in the Sump Drop tutorial a while back:
"Out of all of the rocker covers I have seen, this one was, by far, that cleanest example of care I have ever seen (and we tighten a lot of head bolts at Aktive, let me tell you)."

This is at least the second or third time I've seen you post about re-tightening head bolts. You're starting to get me worried, I have 129K on the clock and the head bolts have never been re-torqued on my '03 2.3t Aero Wagon to my knowledge. How critical a procedure is this going to be to someone like me? Are you just re-tightening most of the time or do you go ahead and replace the stretch bolts?

[SaabScott]

You can re-tighten the bolts once.
More than that will require replacement (they aren't crazy expensive, so not really a big deal).

It's not like the head it ready to come off the block ...
But when you are already in there doing work, ensuring that something as simple as the head being on tight (it can be the source of leaks), it just makes sense to do this.

And for future referance, I am no longer with Aktive Motors (at some point in time, I will explain ...).

[Tuttiface]

oh no!

[photousa]

You can re-tighten the bolts once.
More than that will require replacement (they aren't crazy expensive, so not really a big deal).

It's not like the head it ready to come off the block ...
But when you are already in there doing work, ensuring that something as simple as the head being on tight (it can be the source of leaks), it just makes sense to do this.

And for future referance, I am no longer with Aktive Motors (at some point in time, I will explain ...).

Thanks SaabScott, I guess since I've never done this procedure, I'm more afraid of it than anything. I'll need to go out and buy the angle finder you need for the final turn
on each of the bolts. I've read other posts at SC about various people doing this procedure and being surprised at finding some bolts loose. I also found it interesting in your
post on the Sump Drop tutorial that, if I'm not mistaken, you use a bead of Loctite 518 to hold in the Cylinder Head cover gasket while installing it. I found that gasket very
difficult to install and ended up using dental floss to hold it on so that I could get the cover in place.

I was reading this Taliaferro document about cylinder head bolts: http://www.genuinesaab.com/catalog/p...roducts_id=271
Looks like the problem years are 1997 to 2001, is that accurate or are you re-torquing heads on more recent models? Is there a percentage of Saab's that came into your shop that had loose bolts, 60%, 90%??

Thanks for your help, good luck in your new venture.