So I'm finally refreshing my intake (3 weeks before a scheduled dyno day) and decided to do the cam covers too since there's a little seepage and I want them to look nice under my black plastic air tubes.

Anyway, I always figured that if I did this, it was going to mean I'd upgrade to the new one-piece cam cover bolts from the potentially problematic two-piece bolts that are in there. When I started opening it up though, I found that they all came out easily and are in really good shape (not so much as a bur on the bolt heads).

So what's the consensus, should I re-use the old ones and use that money somewhere else or should I bite the bullet and get the newly designed ones and never have to think about two-piece bolts again?


Also, any other WYAITS? (The cam chain tensioner pads look good, and there was no sludge or anything in there, so I'm really happy with the condition of the engine aside from the muck that I had to scoop out of the valley...)

Has anyone got experience with the new bolts or horror stories of the two-piece bolts?

 

When I did the head gasket on MY 85' I also had the cam cover bolts come out with out any issue. I had to many WYAITS to justify spending more $ on the one piece bolts. I reused the 2 piece W/ anti seize on the bolts. I just snuged them down as I did not want to over tighten which will cause problems in the future. I cleaned up the washers for the bolts and found some rubber gaskets that were the same size as the old ones at the hardware store. No leaks so far. Most of the leaking was from old valve cover gaskets and it looked like no one in the past tried to over tighten the bolts.
With that being said if I could have afforded it I would have gone W/ the one piece bolts.

 

I've never understood the problems some people have had with the two-piece bolts. They've never been an issue with mine. The only conclusion I can come to is that people get them cross-threaded and then either strip the threads or break the bolt. How they do that is beyond me. I always start bolts by hand and tighten them down as much as possible by hand to ensure they go in straight. To be honest, on the valve covers, I disregard the torque figures as well. I just tighten until I feel the bolt bottom out. Since these valve covers have that channel in them, it's impossible to squeeze the gasket out. I also think that the 2-piece bolts aren't a bad idea. The idea is that the lower bolt goes into the aluminum head and stays forever, and the upper bolt screws into the lower bolt which is steel, and does not not experience fatigue from repeated removal and re-tightening like the aluminum.

If you haven't had problems with the originals, I don't see a point in changing them. Especially when you consider the cost.