headbolt sealer

[dan montgomery]

I,ve recently bought 49 & am installing new headgsket just because I had the hood off & thought it couldnt hurt. I,ve never done this before & I see where a bolt sealant is crucial.Any other tricks I should know? Totally cleaned block & head & have torque seqent & new gasket. Thanks for any tips.
Dan in Mt.

 

[Bob Harvey]

Take all the time you need. It is recommended to start and warm up the engine for about 30 mins. then let cool for 10 mins. then re-torgue the bolts. HTH

 

[souNdguy]

IMHO.. I'd have never replace dthe HG just for the heck of it. can get into a can of worms that way.

use a sealant on the wet studs / bolts..

..absolutely NO sealant on dry/blind studs / bolts. in fact.. make sur eno coolant gets pooled in the blind holes otherwise you could hydraulically crack the block when you torque them fastners down.

once warmed, retorque.. I usually check 203 times just to be certain.

a comp test would have been most usefull PRIOR to randomly ripping the head off, as if there were some valve issues.. you might have actually corrected them right then and there.. same with rings... on a flat head like that not awefull hard to drop in new bearing shells of same size it has, rone and ream cyl re righ, and hand lapp valves and breath 10 ys of life back into them for a hundred bucks..

As ultradog would say.. I'm fascinated someone would just randomly rip the head off a machine for no good reason...

soundguy

 

[dan montgomery]

I took the head off the 49 to make sure it didn,t have blown gasket as my 48 does [oil in radiator]. Didn,t realize it would be suct a big issue to reistall. Just looking for any helpful advice.
Dan in Mt.

 

[souNdguy]

a comp test would show that.

 

[souNdguy]

a visual inspection of the rad fluid and engine oil would have been the first thing.. then if you found that.. a comp test just to get a handle on where you are at

 

[dan montgomery]

agree W/ testing for bad hdgskt 1st but this old 8n hasn,t run in 15 or more yrs. Wiring was rotted away, no rad hoses,no gen,all 4 tires dry rotted, carb in toolbox. Hard to test laying out in a field in N.W. Mt. Thought resurect the old girl. Wouldn,t I feel dumb after doing all that work & had a bad hdgskt. D.M. in M.T.

 

[R Geiger]

(quoted from post at 03:24:46 05/22/12) agree W/ testing for bad hdgskt 1st but this old 8n hasn,t run in 15 or more yrs. Wiring was rotted away, no rad hoses,no gen,all 4 tires dry rotted, carb in toolbox. Hard to test laying out in a field in N.W. Mt. Thought resurect the old girl. Wouldn,t I feel dumb after doing all that work & had a bad hdgskt. D.M. in M.T.

I agree with the reason for replacing the gasket, I would also check eto make sure the head is flat and not warped while yu have it off. The old machine I bought out of a field was stuck and had to remove the head and I still had to drive out one piston after soaking for weeks with all the penetrating fluids soldand some home made fluids including AFT.
Have Fun

 

[souNdguy]

that info might have been halpfull in the initial post.

I still wouldn't have done it yet. if you have to do significant engine work on her, like a rebuild.. that head gasket job is lost time and money.

wouldn't you feel dumb for doing it twice? ?