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baldy · Alfasud Joined: 23 Jan 2006 Posts: 67

Hi, Are the cylinder head bolts on the 16v engine reuseable? or are they the type that stretch and need to be relaced when fitting new head gaskets. cheers lee

lee16v · Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 10:56 am Post subject:

I re-used mine with no problems. *waiting for the reply about how you should never re-use them*

BigAl · P4 Joined: 06 May 2003 Posts: 2990 Location: U.K Surrey

I have asked this and too and have re used head bolts on my 16v. I reused them several times on my 8v with no problems.
Stretch bolts are indicated by some weird tightening method, ours are just torque up to a set amount and jobs a good un, so no stretching malarkey.
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x2 33 16v
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gritsop · Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 11:14 am Post subject:

I dont see any reason why the head bolts cant be reused.

After all, these bolts are rated 10.9 so there is no apparent reason for being weak after head removal.
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Thanassis Gritsopoulos
1991 Alfa 33 1.4 IE
2001 Alfa 147 1.6 Distinctive

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ZeNiTh-PbArM · Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 8:00 pm Post subject:

Hi,

The reason for bolt renewal is that some engines are designed with cylinder heads torqued down below the max torque the bolts will accept without damage. When torquing down such heads, the bolts stretch above their non-return point. Once they are removed, they are internally damaged and will not accept a second tensioning-stretching phase. That's why they have to be renewed. This applies to a lot of modern-design engines, specifically diesel ones, which are very compact and suffer from undersized bolts (design choice after all).
On 33s head bolt are not undersize and specified torque is very reasonable for the bolts' size and class. No need to renew the bolts as long as you do not exceed specified torque.

regards,
zp