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EFV-8 Club Forum / General Ford Discussion / replacing head bolts

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Discussion Topic: replacing head bolts

Wolfie

07-12-2010 @ 7:53 PM

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I'm in the process of painting my installed engine and it's looking really good. I want to take it a step further and replace the head bolts, plus intake bolts. I think if I replace one head bolt at a time, the gasket wouldn't break it's seal. Is this risky? If I do it, how much torque on the bolts?

Thanks!

Henryat1140

07-12-2010 @ 8:31 PM

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Hello,

I've been detailing my engine compartment, and faced the same questions. I did not want to disturb the head bolts.

Here's what I did:

1. Using about a 2" diameter wire brush chucked in a cordless drill, I carefully polished all the rust and crud off the cylinder head washers and bolts. I also went over the rest of the head surface, leaving a clean base for painting. I put a strip of masking tape on the top of the block where the heads meet the intake manifold surface, this gave a nice line were the heads sit on that mounting.

2. using an artist brush with about a 1/8" tip, I carefully painted around each washer/bolt combo. I used ford engine green enamel. The bristles in the brush were pretty short, no more than 3/16". This sounds tedious but actually wasn't bad. Then I used an artist brush about 7/16" with a soft bristle, something like sable hair. It came from a hobby shop. I filled in the areas around the head bolts. Doing it this way took about 1 1/2 hour to clean the head and about an hour to paint each one.

There were some areas that were hard to get to, but by kind of bending the brush around the corner you can get to the front and back of the heads. There are a couple of small places you can't actually get to but you would have to look really hard to see them from the normal viewing angle looking in with the hood raised.

At the same time I removed the intake manifold and bead blasted it. I was careful about getting material in the passages, and after I was finished, I thoroughly washed and brushed the manifold with simple green inside and out and let it dry in the sun. In an attempt to keep the stains on the intake to a minimum, I sprayed it with clear from a rattle can. Time will tell if that was a good decision; if it doesn't hold up I can always redo that part.

Anyway I was happy with the way it turned out and would do it that way again. I was leery of touching the head bolts to remove them, as I was afraid I would break some off.

If you have any questions on what/how I did it, feel free to ask. It was a fulfilling and enjoyable project.

supereal

07-13-2010 @ 11:05 AM

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You didn't mention the year of your engine. If you have bolts, I assume it is post '49 (8BA) rather than an engine with studs. Fiddling with either is dicey on an engine that has not been freshly rebuilt. It is common for older engines to have some small seepage at the head gaskets, and several bolts or studs could be "wet". That is, extending into the water jacket, and would need to be chased and sealed. Even retorqueing heads after a long time is not a particularly good idea because the gaskets have taken a "set", and lost any resiliency.

Wolfie

07-13-2010 @ 11:31 AM

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Thanks Super. It is a 40 with studs. I think I better leave it as it is.

supereal

07-13-2010 @ 4:56 PM

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I agree. I know some don't like them, but I still see some acorn nuts covers. Perhaps it is from my long gone hot rod days!

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