Retighten head bolts

[zed]

I had a strange thing happen with the head of a Mazda 1800 OHC motor I re-built a few months back. I used a new cylinder head for the re-build - torqued to 80Nm per spec. After running it for about 200 miles I noticed tiny oil bubbles around the top of one head bolt. Checked the torque - it was down around 60Nm! Re-torqued the head - bubbles gone.

[motavated]

My engine just blew. So Should I get some bolts from the yard and not use these??? Turbo head????

[Buzzbomb]

My engine just blew. So Should I get some bolts from the yard and not use these??? Turbo head????

 

I'm no expert on these engines, but when I blew my head gasket last year, I had a few bolts that looked terrible. They MAY have been able to be reused, but I just didn't take the chance. I basically replaced all the bolts that looked "too rusty". So, I have a combo of my original bolts, newer but used L bolts, and a few Z car bolts thrown in for good measure :) . I just felt that putting all that work in to fixing it and reusing a few rusty pitted bolts was a disaster waiting to happen. Bottom line, I was told here and now believe that you CAN reuse your head bolts. The head bolts for these engines are NOT TTY (Torque to Yield), which means they don't have a specific degree of stretching that is one and done when they are used.

 

Too bad that your HG blew, but at least you scored one for cheap.