Hot torque #3 or #4 good idea or bad

Through one twist of fate or another...I've ended up having the VCs off my truck since the initial H11 head stud install 3 times now.

The amount of movement some of the stud nuts required during torque #2, left me with the indelible impression that hot retorques will be a thing I believe in from here forward 1000%. Most of the stud nuts, took 1/2 to 3/4 a turn.....some took a nearly a whole turn (Snap On recently calibrated tq wrench)....:wtf:

To the point of this thread...I had the VCs off in-conjunction with troubleshooting another issue, and couldn't resist the urge to pop a torque wrench on there and see if things had shifted yet again...to my surprise...4 nuts took greater than a 1/8 turn. Torque #3 complete. Yay. :flush:

Well...the VCs are about to come off again.....is torque #4 too much of a good thing? It seems intuitive...just like any other bolt on the truck, to verify torque spec......nothing loose.....but with the H11 tool steel tensile strength vs. the block vs. practical application of real world experience vs. ???..

Factory forged motor, 98K when springed/studded/injector'd/turbo'd...now at 102K. Forgot to add-Studs were done one by one, initially torqued to 95, then two steps up to a final tq of 135.

Would definitely appreciate responses from folks that have had HG failure, are in the 12s/550+ hp, running 50 psi setups, etc...

TIA

Well first what lube did you use on the studs ? The only one I know that does not take multiple hot tq is the ARP Ultra stuff. I know how meticulous you are so surfaces being clean and lubed I doubt was in deficit.

Also what were the tq lbs you tightened them to and what were the step ups you took to get there the first time?

On swap ins with the ARP Ultra lube and proper step up hot tq from what we saw did not yield anything significant and certianly not to the level you are seeing. I do know with new gaskets I woudl be doing multiple hot retq. from what others with experience have reported.

Lol i never want to torque mine again, already have with helicoils in em. I guess my block is soft.

TARM said:

Well first what lube did you use on the studs ? The only one I know that does not take multiple hot tq is the ARP Ultra stuff.

Click to expand...

I used this stuff....

TARM said:

I know how meticulous you are so surfaces being clean and lubed I doubt was in deficit.

Click to expand...

Glad I have you fooled...I goober stuff up on every project. :lookaround:

TARM said:

Also what were the tq lbs you tightened them to and what were the step ups you took to get there the first time?

Click to expand...

IAW the directions provided by WOP that came with the studs, 50/100/135/135 was the tq steps used.

TARM said:

On swap ins with the ARP Ultra lube and proper step up hot tq from what we saw did not yield anything significant and certianly not to the level you are seeing.

Click to expand...

What is the proper step up hot tq? Have you had an opportunity to see if TQ#3 would've discovered a couple more that needed a tweak?

powerstrokenstang said:

Lol i never want to torque mine again, already have with helicoils in em. I guess my block is soft.

Click to expand...

Me eitheruke:.....I don't want any helicoils

As you know I did not drive it but let it warm up and got nothing on the retorque. I just checked the outside ones and they were still tight as well. Nothing even close to 1/2-3/4 turn for sure. Hope you do not have Powerstrokenstangs issue and you are actually seeing stripping not more tq.

You did take one bolt out at a time and swap it for a stud and tighten to first tq setting then move on to the next bolt in sequence correct? I am sure I could be wrong but with a cured gasket and only doing one bolt at a tight with that lube it seems unusual to have that much room to retighten. Just wondering and not sure it matter but did you use lube on both threaded ends or just the nut end? I did both to be safe .

FWIW I did mine one at a time: Pulled the bolt, installed the stud, washer and nut with lube, and torqued directly to 135 ft-lbs. Then went on to the next.

-Michael