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My old foreman swore by retorquing head bolts cold, and I argued with him for a month
Back when I was green at a shop outside Tulsa, my foreman Ray kept telling me to retorque head bolts after the engine cooled down, not while it was still warm like the book says. I pushed back hard for about a month because every manual I'd read said warm. Then we did a 6.7 Cummins together, he did it his way, and that truck came back at 180k with zero head gasket issues while two of mine from that same stretch were already seeping. I still run warm on most jobs but I've stopped calling his way wrong. Curious if any of you retorque cold on certain engines or is it just an old school thing that happens to work sometimes?
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avery_lopez21d ago
Check what the head gasket maker specs for that engine, because the clamping load is what actually matters here. Some MLS gaskets and certain stud kits call for a cold final torque with a specific stretch or angle, and that has nothing to do with old school vs book. Ray probably got lucky with the Cummins, but torque-to-yield bolts and reusing them warm vs cold changes how they stretch and hold.
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