Thread: V8 heads

According to RAVE, depends on type of engine - earlier V8's, without suffix "B" in engine number can use bolts again. If your V8 is the later type, with a B tacked on the end of the engine number, then it says discard. Tdi says can use 5 times. Take your pick.

langy

ps: Apparantly B engines have a steel gasket, not composite like earlier engines
pps: It's only B engines that have the 20nm/+90deg/+90deg torque - earlier engines have ordinary do it yourself stages in sequence bolts 1-10 90nm, 11-14 60nm.

Originally Posted by PLR

Out of interest how did you arrive at head gasket ?

All the best , Peter

Bubbles ,bubbles and lots more bubbles showing in the radiator when I took the fill plug out,but only does it when I bring the revs up
And took it to the L/R w/shop and They agreed with me

Hi Bully,

I've just been through this myself. Actually I'm still going through it but the project is almost finished now.

I was advised by a few people that the stretch bolts could be used about 5 times but seeing as I didn't know the history of the car and how many times the bolts had been used before I chose to pay the $150 for the new head bolts. After all the effort of pulling everything off the last thing I wanted was to snap off a bolt when putting it all back together. I started a thread called "V8 head gasket tips and tricks" which has a lot of good information from the guys on this forum. If you haven't done the job before it might be worth a read. I'd put a link to it here if I could work out how.

If you do buy the new bolts, check the built in washer for any manufacturing defects (when you buy them). I had a close call with one of mine, where a dag had been left on the underside. When I was doing the bolt up by hand it grabbed so I pulled it out and had a closer look. I hate to think what sort of damage would have been done to the head had I not noticed.

All the best,

Harvs.

Hi Bully,
Having had one snap while torqueing up the head, I would recomend replacing the bolts. Its a total PITA having to pull the head back off and try and extract a broken bolt.

don't stuff around with it, get a set of stretch bolts for it.
it's one of those things you should do when servicing a head. just like replacing the gaskets