Reusing head bolts or gaskets?

[EvilTheCat]

I figured the title would get peoples' attention. I know you aren't supposed to.
I've been working on a head replacement on my '97 4.0L ohv explorer.

Yesterday I put the heads, the lower intake, and rocker arms on. I tried to torque everything correctly, but I turned two of the intake bolts (front and rear) down too far and thought it would be okay. When I got to the valve covers I noticed a seemingly large gap in mating surface where the heads meet the intake. It drops about 1/16". I am worried about the valve covers leaking oil and also whether or not the intake is lined up with the head. (I'll add a photo tonight.)

I know I shouldn't just pull off the heads and slap them back on with the same bolts and gasket because the new bolts will be stretched and the gaskets smashed, but I really don't have the money to buy new parts again.

Is it okay to run with such a large gap?
Will I have coolant and air flow issues if I leave it?
Would it be possible to reuse the intake gasket at least?
How about the head gaskets?
How about the head bolts?
What would you do?

 

[Dan Whitaker]

You are only asking for problems using the old bolts and gaskets. You need to use new head bolts and new gaskets. You can pretty much garantee a leak of some sort using the old gaskets.

 

[1996BLKBauer]

ALWAYS use new, I understand that you just put new ones in, but like you mentioned, they have stretched, and the gasket has been "crushed". unless you like doing head work again, I suggest holding off until you have the money and doing it right, once.

 

[yavapaires]

I figured the title would get peoples' attention. I know you aren't supposed to.
I've been working on a head replacement on my '97 4.0L ohv explorer.

Yesterday I put the heads, the lower intake, and rocker arms on. I tried to torque everything correctly, but I turned two of the intake bolts (front and rear) down too far and thought it would be okay. When I got to the valve covers I noticed a seemingly large gap in mating surface where the heads meet the intake. It drops about 1/16". I am worried about the valve covers leaking oil and also whether or not the intake is lined up with the head. (I'll add a photo tonight.)

I know I shouldn't just pull off the heads and slap them back on with the same bolts and gasket because the new bolts will be stretched and the gaskets smashed, but I really don't have the money to buy new parts again.

Is it okay to run with such a large gap?
Will I have coolant and air flow issues if I leave it?
Would it be possible to reuse the intake gasket at least?
How about the head gaskets?
How about the head bolts?
What would you do?

Can I give you a "case in point"? I did a cam change on a 283 Chevy.( tell you how long ago that was)? Installed the manifold, saw it wasn't lined up correctly, pulled the manifold, repositioned it without new gaskets, bolted it back down, started it, WATER LEAK!!!! Moral of story? USE NEW GASKETS. And with the advent of 'torque to yield' head bolts, I would recommend new bolts too.

 

[Joe Dirt]

Agreed- you can't get out of it, you're going to have to replace them.

 

[jd4242]

Was everything new when you started?.did you tq the heads and intake at the same time?if its just that lip your worried about,it wont hurt anything just put some rtv on both sides of the gasket.but if you feel you must take it back apart the bolts could be reused in this app but NOT gaskets,only because its a stock motor and they have NOT been in the heat cycles and the force of the compressions.i KNOW i will catch crap for saying that and for saying this but TTY bolts are not as critical as everyone makes them out to be. contrary to belief they dont stretch like rubber bands and break.the crank,rod and head bolts are all TTY but how many people do you hear about replacing those.now also they make different strengths of tty bolts,the farther they are threaded up the weaker or more they stretch .

 

[EvilTheCat]

Thanks to everyone that's replied. I decided to just RTV the corners and hope for the best. I can deal with leaky valve covers. I do not want to have to deal with a coolant leak from the head gasket. Nor do I want to spend another hundred dollars on parts.

Well lesson learned. When installing heads, torque head bolts and intake bolts as prescribed in the manual while making sure that your valve cover mating surface is at least close to square.

Here's a couple photos of the heads after putting on the valve covers.
Passenger side. (Largest gap even though it's hard to see)

And driver side.

I'll let you all know if they leak once I get it running.

 

[jd4242]

Thats not bad at all.my heads are shaved so mine is worse than that but my ports have be matched and ported

 

[EvilTheCat]

I accidental unsubscribed from this thread, and the only way I know how to subscribe to it is by posting in it.

 

[BubbaFL]

I reused the head bolts when I rebuilt my 4.0sohc, no problems so far.

 

[EvilTheCat]

Well I got it running today. It fired right up and sounded great. The shaking and stumbling were gone, so I must have somehow hooked up all the wires and hoses correctly.

After it ran for a couple minutes the exhaust manifolds both started smoking. It was only the penetrating oil that I doused everything in burning off.

The only other issue I had was the whining from the power steering pump. I'll be looking into how to remedy this after this post.

As of now I can't see the valve covers leaking at all, and hopefully they never do.

 

[wood1]

I just got my motor back together today and I had a similar gap too. I also had to trim the LIM gaskets as they were sticking out interfering with the valve covers... not sure if I should be annoyed with Ford or Fel-Pro. These motors always need some silicone to make them seal. Just the way they are engineered.

JD is right (IMO) when it comes to the TTY bolts. If they are in good shape (inspect very well) they "can" be reused. No disrespect to the other guys but I have done it with good results. Would I do it on a warmed up motor? Certainly not but a DD rebuild? For sure. Reuse gaskets? Never.

Glad it worked out for you.

 

[EvilTheCat]

I just got through bleeding the power steering pump. After about 20 minutes of my wife turning the wheel and complaining the whole time, the power steering pump only makes it's groans at far left and right. I'll bleed it more in the morning before work, but it still looks like all is well.

Sorry I've digressed from the original post. I'll stop turning the thread to power steering.

 

[Sedition]

What tension did you torque the head bolts to, with them old gaskets?

 

[EvilTheCat]

What tension did you torque the head bolts to, with them old gaskets?

I didn't take the heads back off, so I never had to re-torque them. I just heaped on a bunch of RTV around the seams and under the valve covers. It's been almost 4 months since I put the heads on and it still isn't leaking any oil around the covers or burning any antifreeze, so I must have had them lined up close enough. I doubt that I would have reused the old head gaskets, I was just not able to think clearly after hours of working in the cold and needed some advice from these knowledgeable folks. I would imagine that you could torque them to the same amount as the new gaskets, but I wouldn't trust them not to leak a bit.