Can you tighten the head bolts to more than the stock specs to sustain higher boost pressures or is this a no no? i am looking for longevity here and am running about 40 psi of boost now adays. but you cant put a price on cool right!!!

 

Some go to 125 ft lbs cold on a stock gasket and bolts. I know a guy that did that and he had good luck with it boosting up to 60psi. I think I will do 115 foot pounds and try that. I don't want to stretch or snap a bolt.

 

Are you talking about Joel? He ran 60+psi with his twins for a couple months before he blew his stock gasket.

125ft/lbs on the stock bolts is what people recommended to me. I plan on doing that when I install my 370's. (hopefully by thursday.)

 

so 125 will be the ticket i hear you do not want to go to 125 lbs right away correct? also how many bolts are there to tighten!

 

go for it.120 to 125 unless they feel funny. especially the long hoding rockers. the bad news is the old non i/c gasket is more prone to failure with age due to being made of different compound than 911/2 up i/c gasket. but you will could develope an external coolant leak before internal. then you lose coolant / overheat maybe and know you need a new one. just retoqur and have fun . may last along time still .

 

I got my bolts torked to 135

There are 26 head bolts and I usually go 50, 70, 90, 100, 110, 120, 125, 130, 135 with a new .020 over gasket

This usually holds 55psi of very hot N/Ic boost for about a year

 

ok i will go slowly with the motor cold.is there any pattern to tightening them?

 

1985cucv yes there is a pattern to torque them. I don't have my book here to tell you what it is. There may be something in the sticky about it. Someone had a very good headgasket thread about head gaskets but I don't remember if they had a torque pattern in it. Go slow when tightening your bolts, I would think 10 or 15 lb/ft each sequence will be good. Watch closely as you tighten them if some of them take an extra 1/2 to 3/4 of a turn you may have to replace that bolt because it is stretched too much. Maybe someone will chime in here that has more experience on the little Cummins can give you more detail. Good luck with it.

 

Go find BC's "I'm gonna blow up my mess" thread. Lots of good info on head gaskets and other cool stuff.

 

dodge service manual says head sequence starts with the middle one between 3-4 cylinders and starts in a small circle around the #3 cylinder, gradually getting bigger, tightening the bolts in a clockwise moment

 

If you do end up taking the old bolts out remember to put a very fine film of oil on the bolts or get the moly lube. some people pull one bolt at a time and put the fine film of oil on and then put the bolt back in

 

i will not be removing the bolts or is that the right way to do it? thanks

 

this is the 6B headbolt torque pattern.

 

If you use oil make sure its HD-30. So it won't change viscosity.

 

If you were to do this, would it be necessary to pull the bolts out and retap the threads in the block?
Thanks
Justin