Matthew West

I just finished putting my car back together after doing some maintenance. I pulled the head to take care of an oil leak and investigate some other "badness". The car has been reassembled with raceware head studs, new vacuum lines, and a fuel pressure gage on the end of the fuel rail.

The raceware instructions "recommend" heat cycling the engine and then re-torquing the headstuds. I am feeling a little lazy and just want to enjoy the car. Do I need to re-torque the headstuds tomorrow?

Alan C.

When I replaced the head gasket on my car, Racewear studs, I did not re-torque the head. This was the second gasket on the same studs and I had no problems.

However, a friend put in new Raceware studs and did not re-torque. He ended up with a coolant leak which was fixed by a re-torque of the head.

If they are new studs I'd probably re-torque. That might not be true if you are using one of the new metal gaskets. Chris White or Dano would be able to answer that one.

Alan C.

Tom M'Guinn

I just replaced my headgasket and used new raceware studs. I debated (and was feeling equally lazy) but finally pulled it apart after a few heat cycles (instructions say after one, but hey..). Anyway, not one of the nuts budged a bit. Maybe they were baked on a bit by then and needed to be broken free, but when they clicked the torque wrench to spec, I just left it at that and bolted it back together. I double checked with the rod style torque wrench, and they did seem to start turning if I pushed passed spec. If I were to do it again, I'd probably re-torque anyway...better safe than sorry. One half-way approach I contemplated for a while was just to pull off the intake and check the upper nuts. If they are all to spec, maybe the others are too. ??