Thread: 300TDi Head Bolts! Reuse or Bin??

Originally Posted by p38arover

Lots of stuff from BMI is AllMakes - a brand to avoid, IMHO.

my V8 Rangie's NEW head bolts were AllMakes but so far the head gasket is going strong .

Originally Posted by p38arover

Lots of stuff from BMI is AllMakes - a brand to avoid, IMHO.

Well, I called this morning and spare parts department have assured me the 300tdi Headbolt kit is not an Allmakes Brand.

When i stuffed my engine at the end of last year and had the head re-done and a short motor added to the equation i re-used the majority of the head bolts again, had to replace 2. Bruce davis said if they torque down to the correct settings then there is nothing wrong with using them again. Apparently if they are buggered they wont tighten up properly and feel like the threads are stripped if the bolts are stuffed. Just what bruce said to me. matt

New Bolts and Gaskets arrived this morning (only ordered them yesterday just before lunch), Bolts are Federal Mogul brand, cost $55, gaskets and bolts with Express delivery was $147.90 from British 4WD imports in Bayswater Vic, very happy with service, Regards Frank.

Originally Posted by Cliffy

They are "stretch bolts".
Depending on what manual you read they can be reused 3 -5 times.
If you haven't owned your bus from new then BUY NEW!
Good insurance policy!

Stretch bolts or Torque To Yield are single use only. Dont know where you got 3-5 times from.

Cheers

Andrew.

Originally Posted by justinc

Frank,

I can't remember the manufacturers name, but there are a few, and there is a set from a Spanish or EU manufacturer that is good too. (Possibly the supplier to International Engines in Brazil?)

The main thing is avoid no name cheap bolts, I have seen them on offer and I would be highly suspicious of their reputation at less than $5 a bolt

JC

Ajusa is the manufacturer JC. Used to sell buckets of them when I was at SMS Diesel. Precision sell them too IIRC.

Dont touch any of the Chinese bolts as these are known to be made with scrap steel and dont hold a set quality or tensile.

Cheers

Andrew

Just bought a set of Britpart bolts from Rovacraft in Perth. $55. Not sure about Britpart, I've had a waterpump failure and a brake master cylinder from Britpart that were really dubious quality and both failed. ( Water pump leaked from gland within 300 km's and the master cylinder held pressure in the system locking the brakes on within the first 10 km's). We'll see what happens with these bolts (Its our truck so we can experiment!)

you can reuse both the v8 and the tdi head bolts up to 5 times.

as a general rule I dont reuse head bolts on engines that I dont know how many times they have been reused previously in or if the bolts have done more than 100,000 KM.

I personally only reccomend using them 3 times as that leaves you 2 more goes up your sleeve incase something stupid happens when you're desperate.

I'll have a dig through the manuals later and find the reference