After my head renewal, and engine swap, I used a Felpro gasket. It said on the gasket 'do not re-torque' so I didn't. On a shakedown cruise to the Northeast Kingdom, VT, it began to overheat on the hills. The next day, I observed crud in the coolant, and the newish oil was cloudy. The local parts store didn't have head gaskets in stock, so I re-torqued the head bolts, which seemed pretty loose (about 50 lb/ft). It ran cool most of the way home, but spiked again going down a mountain.
My point is, do you all re-torque the head bolts or not with the new gaskets that say not to? Are there two kinds of head gaskets or what? Also, if I just had the head planed before the previous gasket, and used new head bolts, can I get away with just replacing the head gasket, or would it be better to plane the head again and use new bolts. Thanks for any opinions, guesses, or speculations.

I run mine up to 70-80 and do not retorque.

Maybe head/deck are not flat or were gunky?

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

I also didn't use threadlocker or gasket sealer. Do you use either of those?

Nope, neither. I put a little oil on the bolt threads, which some people don't like, I guess.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Thanks Lou,
I might get the head planed a wee bit more to be sure, already took off some to increase compression. I think Doc Dodge posted something about using a sanding block to flatten out the block, after removing locating pins, awhile back. I don't really want to pull the engine again.

What did you torque head bolts to? With a beam-type or click torque wrench? Beam is more reliable.

It's unusual to have a slant head or block warp so that a felpro gask will not seal it. I have never had a problem with old junk heads and blocks.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

I used a click type, and torqued to 70 lb/ft, and I think the block was cold. I put a straightedge on the block, and had the head planed flat. Maybe there was some crud on the block? I'm inclined to just try again, after a good cleanup, and maybe a light plane on the head.

Make sure to check for head cracks when you pull it. I had one that cracked right after I had it redone and I thought it was the gasket. Might want to get shop to magnaflux before going further. Course, that would not get better if you retorque.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

I hope it's not that, just junked the tube head I had before.