SBC Head gasket question

[dave_s1987]

so today I decide to put my heads back on my motor as i'm starting to get ready to do my motor swap. I had the threads cleaned out before hand and bought all new head bolts for this. I put some engine oil on the threads and began to torque them down in proper sequence. Basically on the 3rd round of torquing to get them to 65 ft lbs, the 15th bolt in the sequence stripped (the threads in the block)

Basically my question now that I have to take the cylinder head back off is that new gasket still good? or because it was torqued down all the way on 95% of the bolts am I stuck buying a new one?

that might sound like a stupid question but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

thanks for reading

 

[pontiacgp]

you'll be ok.

 

[dave_s1987]

I was really hoping that was the case. The fact that I have to buy a helicoil kit now is bad enough news lol

 

[pontiacgp]

I like helicoils, the should be used in threads of aluminum parts. In your case better to find out now than after the engine is running and you have a head bolt coming out. In case you aren't sure what helicoil you'll need...Heli-Coil Thread Inserts 5521-7

 

[dave_s1987]

I was quite mad at first when the threads broke loose but like you said, its better to have problems now than when i'm out on the road somewhere. I plan to take this thing to California and back in August to see some family so the more that goes wrong in my garage instead of on the road, the better off I'll be.

I have never heard of a helicoil before. Hell, before I started this project last fall I don't think I owner a single tool lol. After looking at my options and discovering i could use a helicoil I felt much better though. They're a pretty cool invention. Let just hope I don't find a way to screw that up

Thanks a lot for the heli-coil part number. Looks like I have plans for Friday now lol

 

[crotchss]

BTW, did you say you used oil on the head bolt threads? When installing SBC head bolts into a production block you should use a sealant on them because they go into the water jackets. I've seen many people not use sealant and have coolant leak into the oil.

 

[dave_s1987]

I actually did not use any thread sealant because the info I was reading at the time did not say to use it. Since I have been doing some research on that heli-coil I decided that i was going to grab some thread sealant to use next time instead of the oil. The info I had and video I watched just had a guy dipping the bolt threads in oil so thats what I did. I have since looked a lot of info that says to use the sealant instead.

 

[pontiacgp]

when you install the helicoil in put sealant on it

 

[dave_s1987]

Thanks for the tip! When I looked up a heli-coil video they used a thread sealant and that's when i discovered I should have used it on the all the head bolts when they went in. I guess that's another small positive to having something like this happen. I can go back and correct them now

 

[pontiacgp]

it's a good idea to put a little oil on the shank of the bolt and under the head so there is no binding