re torquing head studs

[aga]

Searched around , didnt find anything. In many engines its a common practice to re torque the head studs after 1000-2000miles from a fresh rebuild. I dont know if this is common on SR's. I got an engine rebuilt by a good shop, but not by me, previous owner so i don't remember the shop. I saw a smear of oil near coming from the block/head connection. i have ARP studs and cometic hg. Also, some builders use loctite on the studs so i dont wanna fuck up something for no reason. i cant find the shop that built the engine cause the previous owner is a douchebag and won't pick up the phone...

[Sileighty_85]

I tried retorquing my head once. It was 4 years later and an experiment to try before pulling the head to replace the H/G.

Ended up warping the head.

Usually ppl say do it after 1 or 2 heat cycles. Although with the new H/G I didnt and havent had any issues from the other engines Ive build with ARP head studs

Me personally wouldn't do it after 1K miles.

Cometic H/G are garbage witch is probably why its leaking

[aga]

hmm yes i ve heard about cometic being garbage. ARP studs can be reused once, right? maybe i should invest in a better headgasket. i'll keep my eye on the leak in case it gets worse (it's just a smear)

[silver350z05rb]

agree with ^^^............. cometic sucks, BUT other than that, I have heard of people getting engines back with studs NOT tq'd down properly and oil coming out, so maybe some are loose????? you can try checking with a TQ bar with correct settings?

[aga]

i'll try taking it easy... i'll go gradually up to 70 or something...

[JBPUSA]

im going to say you should probably look up what the ARPs should be tq'd down to specifically , unless it is 70???? I don't have that information, im sure its on google lol, if they are tq'd down correctly, then Im going back to head gasket(and im hoping not warped head/block)

[aga]

arp's have different torque specs depending on the year,but the generally safest i've seen is 75-85. i ve seen some come with directions to go 105 and they've snapped.

i dont think the leak is something serious, definitely not something worth spending money on, changing gaskets and studs... but checking the torque is free :)

[Sileighty_85]

old styles are 70lbs, the new ones are higher. New Styles will have ARP 2000 on the top of the studs.

Like I said before I wouldnt recommend re torquing them since its been running for a while.

[dawagarage]

dont retorque unless the fsm tells you to.
OR the aftermarket studs and/or HG manufacturers tell you to do so.
some aftermarket HGs will have 'no retorque' stamped into them.

[fliprayzin240sx]

^^^Yup, unless the ARP instructions tell you to retorque, then dont bother. I dont remember having the need to retorque on ARP headstuds on both my SR and RBs.

Oil you're seeing is coming at the front? Its pretty common for oil to leak out between the front cover and head. Double check to make sure the 12mm screws holding the front cover to the head isnt loose. I'd try to tighten those and see if it fixes the leak.

[cotbu]

Oil you're seeing is coming at the front? Its pretty common for oil to leak out between the front cover and head.
I agree that cometic head gaskets suck as well, but only if you follow the crowd with unnecessary decking. Rarely does a machine shop put the head back on the block after decking both anyway... I have a cometic head gasket, no decking ARP studs hand tight ARP molly torqued to 80ftlbs Grey RTV on timing cover, kinda sloppy looking because I forgot it when I put the head on. Had to lift the head and kinda smear it around the timing cover, you get the idea, the excess on my finger, was clean by the protruding part of the HG, then shaped to not look so stupid. No leaks!
I don't see anything wrong with checking the torque, but a torquing, probably means somebody f'd up.

[aga]

thanks guys. yeah the oil is at the front.

[ShadowMan]

I rebuilt my SR almost 2 years ago and used ARP hardware throughout. Torq spec is 80 ft. lbs. for the headstuds. I probably went a couple thousand miles before I checked the headstuds again, and they all still remained at 80 ft. lbs. and since that was the only spec in the ARP instructions, I didn't push them any further. So far so good. Don't get caught up in the "I have to retorq the headstuds or else..", because I think it's more of a check to make sure they remain at the proper tightness. Some guys running high hp/lots of boost probably stretch them a bit more than I do and might have to retighten their HS, but I don't know. Just pop the VC and double check that they are within a few lbs. of 80 ft. lbs. and I think you should be fine. As far as re-using them, not sure about this either, but if they are way over torq'd, I don't know, like 90+ ft. lbs. I'd say just get new ones as an insurance policy. I also used an Apexi HG without any copper spray and have had no issues so far. Take a pic of the oil leak, it might just be the timing cover was poorly sealed with RTV or something simple, but a pic will help us help you. By no means am I a professional engine builder, this was my first engine build, so take what I've said only as suggestions from my personal experience, not as a definitive answer. Good luck.