jeff spahn

This was my first time torquing heads down. It was interesting to feel the gasket compress through the wrench. I torqued per the WSM with 15 ft/lbs then two 90 degree angle torques.
I got an angle torque gauge from Advance Auto Parts. Was pretty inexpensive and I can see you really don't need to spend much money on one of these things. It is a simple device to set up and simple to use.



You put the small arm against something solid in the head, set the dial to zero and turn the wrench until it reaches the angle you desire. Very simple.

I was concerned when the head first compressed because I thought I had stripped something and wasn't even 60 degrees into the first 90 degree rotation. Then I remembered reading a post on Rennlist about someone experiencing the gasket compressing and feeling the same thing.

I'd have been able to get the car on the road Sunday if I hadn't bugged up one of my oil galley plugs. Oh well. It will be this week anyway. Good feeling.
Having the WSM's there and knowing Rennlist is only a few keystrokes away makes this job not so bad.

Imo000

I thought the conses was 3 X 90 as the WSM is incorrect.

blown 87

Let it sit for a couple of days, then go beg, borrow, steal or BUY, a good Snap-On, digital, angle torque wrench and release the head bolts in reverse order and torque them again.

jeff spahn

The 3x90 is wrong, but it only applies to the cars with head studs. The WSM shows 15fl/lbs, the 2 90's for the later cars with bolts.

jeff spahn

Buying a SNAP ON Torque wrench isn't in the cards for me. I don't know who I'll borrow one from. Have to check my sources. At least I am torquing it with an angle gauge.

So I do have the question about letting it sit. I don't see this in the WSM anywhere but I have seen it mentioned a few times on RL. What is the reason for doing this? I thought the head gasket had a crush factor and a silicone gasket in it you don't want to mess up.

jeff spahn

So, who wants to lend me their SNAP ON or other really good digital angle torque wrench for about a week?

blown 87

If you live in a town of any size some shop will have one that they might rent you one for a hour or two, it wont take long.

As far as letting them sit and re-torquing them, it insures that you have all the crush taken out and it will give you the advantage of a re-torque.
It is a really good practice on head gaskets.

Leon Speed

*subscribed*

jeff spahn

Town of 65,000. I'll check with the machine shop that did my heads and see if I can rent one for $20 for overnight.

I only have one head on right now due to the oil galley plugs. I'll put the other one on with my own angle gauge and let it sit for a few days, then I'll do both at the same time.

This is actually a fun project. Taking way longer than I anticipated because life seems to keep getting in the way.

mark kibort

when i did the stroker, we were using the special cometic copper gasikets. if we did the process one time, i would have had a blown head gasket the first time out! instead, after torquing stuff down and feeling the sinking feeling that the bolts were barely tight we loosened them all and did it again after a while. later, did the process again, and it took twice the force to do the 90 degree rotations, after the initial 14ftlb (20nm) first torquing. i mean it was night and day.

recently, doing the heads with studs and nuts (early cars) we used the torque value, 3 step process. 14, 35 and 64ft-lbs when noticing the amount of angle that this process uses, its a little concerning. when i backed off 90 degrees to loosen and tighten the 2 valver head nuts (nuts not bolts),they became almost hand tight after loosenign then nuts. to get it back to 64ftlbs i noticed about 100 degrees of movement. weird! that means the S4 is a LOT tighter, or do the studs not streatch as much? (bolts in the S4 streatch more? to allow for 2 x 90 degrees?)

I think its all black magic and the factory just guesses at the values.

Bill Ball

With Cometics multilayer head gaskets it is obvious that they need to be torqued, let sit a day, loosened and retorqued, as Mark mentions. They are completely different from stock gaskets and the initial 15 ft-lbs, 90 degrees X 2 is WAY too easy and leaves the gaskets WAY too loose. With factory gaskets I've just done the WSM procedure with no repeat, and that second 90 degrees is pretty tough with my small arms.

jeff spahn

So I got a new wrench after discussing it with some learned people. My angle gauge wouldn't cut the mustard. Pricey but should be worth it.

Leon Speed

Nice, but just to understand: why wasn't your angle torque wrench good enough? 90 degrees is 90 degrees.

blown 87

You would think, but that is not the case, to much slack to take up, to much "Bend" in the arm, just a lot of varibles to deal with, it really takes two people to use one of those angle gauges.

GregBBRD

So.....

Since you bought a nice tool...I'll give you some additonal help, that I wasn't going to bother with, before.

That feeling that you think is the "head gasket" compressing is, in reality, one of the head washers spinning on the head....which is strictly forbidden, by Porsche. Whenever the torque required to turn decreases suddenly, this is what happened.

Whenever this happens, to me, I start over.

The surface between the washer and the head must be completely dry. The head nuts need to be lubricated between them and the washer. I use a special high pressure never sieze. If the washers continue to spin, you can remove them and "sand" an aggresive "cross hatch" onto the face that touches the head. I use 220 on a very flat surface.

I actually do all the washers, before I start....I got really tired of this happening.