torque to yield harmonic balancer LS1

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64nailhead

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Dec 1, 2014
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I guess I'm in the minority. I replaced both the balancer and head bolts with ARP for the ease of just torquing them to ARP spec and walking away.
Nothing wrong with that - at all.

To me, using ARP bolts, new gaskets, thorough cleaning, etc, describes the amount of love you have for the motor. You spend money on those you love lol. If new hard parts, i.e. new pistons/rings, bearings, oil pump, etc. are used, then using quality hardware is money well spent. Putting a motor together with the expectation that you're going to beat on it until it breaks is a much different build than one you plan to put to together and never tear down again for 100k miles.

I don't see anything wrong with either plan as long as the builder/owner understands what the end goal is.
 
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Texas82GP

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Nothing wrong with that - at all.

To me, using ARP bolts, new gaskets, thorough cleaning, etc, describes the amount of love you have for the motor. You spend money on those you love lol. If new hard parts, i.e. new pistons/rings, bearings, oil pump, etc. are used, then using quality hardware is money well spent. Putting a motor together with the expectation that you're going to beat on it until it breaks is a much different build than one you plan to put to together and never tear down again for 100k miles.

I don't see anything wrong with either plan as long as the builder/owner understands what the end goal is.
I tried to do the torque/angle procedure on the head bolts (engine was still in the truck). I even bought the torque/angle gauge. I couldn't do it, especially with how they have the engine rammed underneath the windshield. I threw in the towel and ordered the ARP head bolts for the next weekend.
 
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64nailhead

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Dec 1, 2014
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I tried to do the torque/angle procedure on the head bolts (engine was still in the truck). I even bought the torque/angle gauge. I couldn't do it, especially with how they have the engine rammed underneath the windshield. I threw in the towel and ordered the ARP head bolts for the next weekend.
Jared, I have to say that I was never a true believer in this 'sloppy mechanics' stuff until I put it to the test. I re-used TTY head bolts on my original 4.8 with the original head gaskets with a couple of coats of copper coat on them. I torqued the head bolts to 55 ft/lbs. And then I watched a couple of video from Happel and re-torqued them to 60ft/lbs. I checked the rod and main bearings and they were awful. But I put them back in and retorqued all of them to SBC specs for bolts of that size. Basically, I did everything that I never used to do. I put 22 psi to that motor and a lifter stuck. I decided it was uicker to swap in the next one rather than fix it.

I did end up fixing it and treated it to new lifters, head gaskets, oil pump and stock head bolts. I've torqued everything to the correct TTY spec. It's now my spare awaiting to go into action. And I feel confident that it'll be up to the task.

With the new parts I'm into that motor for a total of $8-900 including cam and valve springs. If it melts down I have no concern.
 
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Texas82GP

Just-a-worm
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Jared, I have to say that I was never a true believer in this 'sloppy mechanics' stuff until I put it to the test. I re-used TTY head bolts on my original 4.8 with the original head gaskets with a couple of coats of copper coat on them. I torqued the head bolts to 55 ft/lbs. And then I watched a couple of video from Happel and re-torqued them to 60ft/lbs. I checked the rod and main bearings and they were awful. But I put them back in and retorqued all of them to SBC specs for bolts of that size. Basically, I did everything that I never used to do. I put 22 psi to that motor and a lifter stuck. I decided it was uicker to swap in the next one rather than fix it.

I did end up fixing it and treated it to new lifters, head gaskets, oil pump and stock head bolts. I've torqued everything to the correct TTY spec. It's now my spare awaiting to go into action. And I feel confident that it'll be up to the task.

With the new parts I'm into that motor for a total of $8-900 including cam and valve springs. If it melts down I have no concern.
Yeah Jim, two totally different projects. Mine was a cam swap and DoD delete on my daily driver with the engine still in the truck. I have 109k miles on all that work so I guess I did something right.

It's indisputable that the sloppy LS works and makes sense for something that will be abused. It's just so bad for my OCD! 🤣
 
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Tony1968

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While I agree about the "sloppy" methods working.... I did recently watch him build a motor and I cringed at some of the things he did/does. To each his own I guess
 
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64nailhead

Goat Herder
Dec 1, 2014
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While I agree about the "sloppy" methods working.... I did recently watch him build a motor and I cringed at some of the things he did/does. To each his own I guess
I watch his cam swap video fir the Don't BS Me 4.8 in which he's wearing flip flops. 'Don't look at the cam bushings'

Makes me laugh everytime I see a part of it.
 
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Texas82GP

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It's difficult for me to take guys working on cars in open toed shoes seriously.
 
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doood

Amateur Mechanic
Sep 24, 2020
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The smooth shank section of the bolt is greater diameter than the thread minor diameter. It is automatically not torque-to-yield based on that. Same for ARP.

If it doesn't call for it in an assembly manual, don't lubricate a torque-specific fastener thread without caution; it can lead to higher than required torque values. Some risk, zero gain. Lube the balancer i.d. and crank o.d. only.

Cribbing the stand with lumber is easy enough if needed.

If your tools let you take two sweeps to total 140°, that will be fine.
excellent advice. I will use lumber to stabilize the stand.

These bolts are one time use supposedly... I thought that meant they were yielding.
 

81cutlass

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Feb 16, 2009
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A TTY bolt materialistically isn't anything different from any other bolt of a similar grade, you just tighten it past the typical elastic region and into the plastic region where it stretches permanently unlike a normal bolt where you torque it to a point where it stretches temporarily.

You can buy a grade 5 hardware bolt and torque to yield it in the same way as a ARP bolt, it just takes a different level of torque.

A bolt torqued using TTY is yielding but it depends how far up the stress curve you get before you start necking the shank diameter down and reduce strength due or just flat out exceed the ultimate tensile strength of the material.
 
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