Cylinder head installation

[Tony_Urwin]

As I mentioned in an earlier thread, I blew a head gasket when I was trying out A/C brackets and pulleys.

A new gasket, new head bolts, and 3 studs (to secure the A/C compressor bracket) are on the way. Yesterday I watched the machinist clean up the head. After he milled .010 off, there was still some mild pitting between the cylinders, so I had him take off another .005. Perfectly clean now. Makes me a little nervous to take off so much though. This engine was rebuilt in 2000, and the head was probably cleaned up back then, as well.

Any re-assembly tips from the skilled mechanics out there? Should I use anti-sieze on the bolts? Do any bolts need thread sealant? Gasket spray?

[Olddaddy]

I routinely take .050 to .060 off heads without incident. I know George Asche takes them up 100 thousandths off. I use a copper spray on sealant on my head gaskets also, without any incident over the years. I do one other thing, after initial torque, and re-torque at warm-up, I re-torque at 500 miles. I check again at 1000 miles, but have not had to re-torque at that point.

[Norm's Coupe]

I didn't use any sealant on the head gasket. No problem. Have the gasket that has copper on both sides. I did seal the headbolts with teflon brush grade sealer though. Check the manual though on that. There may be a couple that aren't supposed to be sealed. Also, when tightening the headbolts, start in the center and work your way to end to end. Think that procedure is posted on the main site in the tech section if you don't have a service manual. Do it just like the P15/D24 engines.

[greg g]

I take an old head bolt and file a "V" groove or two vertically along the threads. I use this bolt to chase the threads in the engine block. After this I run a bottle brush up and down with some PB BLASTER or other penetrating oil. This will clean the threads, and the slits in the bolt give any crud a place to go. I haven't used any sealant on the threads of head bolts as my contention is that the threaded portion of the block they go into is below the coolant passages and therefore is not a source of leaks thread sealer will deal with. It may keep the bolts from rusting in the block but so should a good clean solution of coolant and water. When I do the initial torque down I go around the sequence starting at about 40 lbs and increasing by 10 each round to 65 or 70 to finish. I sprayed the block side with copper left the head side dry.

The sequence is as follows;

17, 11, 5, 2, 8, 14, 20

16, 10. 4. 1. 7, 13, 19

18, 12, 6, 3, 9, 15, 21

<- Front, Drivers side.

[Merle Coggins]

Many of the head bolts holes are open into the water jacket area. Like Norm I uses a teflon pipe sealant on the bolt threads to reduce the risk of leaks. I also ran a tap through all the bolt holes in the block to clean them out before assembly, but a good thread chase like what Greg made would work too.

Merle

[Tony_Urwin]

The head bolts that I ordered from Vintage Power Wagons came with sealant on the first 3/4" of the threads.

[Don Coatney]

The head bolts that I ordered from Vintage Power Wagons came with sealant on the first 3/4" of the threads.

Tony;

Are the VPW head bolts new? What was the cost?

[Tony_Urwin]

Too much. I'm at work right now, so I don't have the invoice, but I ordered a new head gasket (the kind with copper on both surfaces), 18 head bolts, 3 studs, and 6 nuts. Cost with shipping was about $105.00. Probably would have been much cheaper to use Chevy bolts like you did. I was at work when I ordered them, and thought I could save some time by ordering everything at once. Wrong.... It took 9 days before the parts arrived.

Another reason I'm not too crazy about Vintage Power Wagons right now: I explained that I wanted studs to mount a 1/2" plate on the head, and 6 nuts so that I could remove the A/C bracket without loosening the cylinder head. Still, when the studs arrived, they were only long enough to use one nut.

Previously, I ordered reproduction taillights and taillight brackets from them. When they arrived, the taillights wuld not fit the brackets. I called, and they told me that the repro lights were not standard and wouldn't fit any standard brackets. Seems like they could have mentioned that when I ordered the combination.

They seem nice enough on the phone. Maybe I've just been unlucky with them.

[Don Coatney]

Too much. I'm at work right now, so I don't have the invoice, but I ordered a new head gasket (the kind with copper on both surfaces), 18 head bolts, 3 studs, and 6 nuts. Cost with shipping was about $105.00. Probably would have been much cheaper to use Chevy bolts like you did. I was at work when I ordered them, and thought I could save some time by ordering everything at once. Wrong.... It took 9 days before the parts arrived.

Another reason I'm not too crazy about Vintage Power Wagons right now: I explained that I wanted studs to mount a 1/2" plate on the head, and 6 nuts so that I could remove the A/C bracket without loosening the cylinder head. Still, when the studs arrived, they were only long enough to use one nut.

Previously, I ordered reproduction taillights and taillight brackets from them. When they arrived, the taillights wuld not fit the brackets. I called, and they told me that the repro lights were not standard and wouldn't fit any standard brackets. Seems like they could have mentioned that when I ordered the combination.

They seem nice enough on the phone. Maybe I've just been unlucky with them.

Thanks Tony;

I have only had dealings with VPW once. I bought a water distribution tube from them. It arrived damaged and when I called them they told me to keep it and they sent me a new one at no cost.

I am leaning towards the AARP studs when I do my Spitfire head install. I believe the cost is close to what you paid. I was fortunate and bought 4 copper sandwich gaskets on the bay a couple years ago for around thirty bucks.

[Norm's Coupe]

Tony,

At least your head bolts were cheaper than mine. I bought mine from a local Chrysler dealer. They had to get old stock from 3 different regional warehouses. With the shipping the cost for the head bolts was about $90 or $95. That was before I knew about the Chevy bolts though.

[Tony_Urwin]

Finished installing all new hoses and fired up the truck this afternoon. Let it come up to temp and then re-torqued the head bolts with the engine running. I was surprised at how much they loosened up. Most of the bolts took about a half turn to bring them back to spec.

I had sandblasted the head before I took it to the machine shop. Over the weekend, I re-painted the head with silver POR-15 engine paint. I had bought several cans when I painted the engine on my DeSoto. That engine came out a nice shade of silver. Maybe the paint got too cold over the winter, but the head turned out a lovely shade of light green. Oh well....

The bigger problem is the 2 bolts that mount the bracket for the oil filter canister. Problem is, I can't find 'em. A 5/16" coarse thread bolt isn't big enough to catch the threads and a 3/8" bolt is too big. Anyone have any idea what size bolts I should use?

[Merle Coggins]

Might me 5/16" fine thread. They used a lot of fine thread bolts back then.