re-using head bolts

[IDIoit]

are these head bolts torque to yeild?

i have torn apart a few engines in an attempt to find the perfect engine to use for my 87 F350.
i should have listened and tore apart the 100k engine i have in my 89 F250.

the problem is that the 89 is what i use to move things around the yard.
so im going to do a motor swap.

i dont want to get in deep to this engine.
i just want to slap parts together to keep this truck alive.

its N/A and no plans for a turbo until i eventually strip the truck and use all its parts on a hotrod build.

can i reuse the bolts i pulled off? or should i buy another set?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Engine-Cyli...gon-7-3L-V8-/261540282118?hash=item3ce503ff06

 

[BDCarrillo]

What's the expected life span for that slapped together motor? If it's a few months or a few thousand miles, I say re-use the old bolts.

 

[IDIoit]

most likely a year, less than 200 miles, lots of starts tho.

without a bed, this rig is perfect for moving boats around and moving cars.

 

[BDCarrillo]

Typ4 and icanfixall weigh in on reusing head bolts in this thread:

http://www.oilburners.net/forums/showthread.php?67901-Are-ARP-Head-Studs-Overrated-for-our-stock-engines-with-stock-boost

 

[icanfixall]

I suggest reusing the old bolts if you see they are not rusted and pitted along the shaft. A power wire brushing the bolt threads is fine but please do not chase the threads with a die nut. The bolts are a rolled thread. No idi was ever assembled with torque to tield head bolts and thats a good thing.

 

[OLDBULL8]

Use three (3) layers of hair spray on each side of head gaskets, torque head bolts to 110 ft.lbs. Your choice of hair spray fragrance.
If it's still there in the Tech Articles, "Know your 6.9L and 7.3L History" this is what it say's about head bolts for the 7.3L, "Head bolts torque to 100 ft lbs new or used".
I've personally torqued them to 120 ft lbs, after the original torque sequence to 100 ft lbs., then in four (4) 5 ft lbs steps/sequence.

 

[IDIDieselJohn]

I've reused the head bolts when I did the head gaskets on my 6.9 motorhome, 12 years ago, no problems and done over 100k miles since the heads were off.

 

[riotwarrior]

Reuse em


Nuff said

 

[Runningaford]

I had asked a similar question over at FTE, but haven't gotten a response. Lucky for me, this same topic came up here.....

I'm wanting to do some work to my NA in the not so distant future. Is there any certain torquing order I should follow to replace one head bolt at a time, with ARP studs., or since the head bolts 'should' already be torqued, can I simply replace each one with studs without any certain order?

Also, with the studs, do you have to pretorque them into the block(using two nuts tightened against each other), then torque the head, or do you just screw them in until they bottom out, then just torque the nut down?

I think that was a clear question, lol

Thanks in Advance!

 

[BDCarrillo]

Studs are run in finger tight to bottom, then the nuts are torqued to manufacturer specs

 

[FarmerFrank]

I reused my head bolts with about 5-6 recorded times my Stewart warner temp gauge has shown 245* and 5-10psi of boost and they haven't broke yet.

 

[IDIoit]

im gonna try to get this thing together today, and ready for a swap in the next few days.