Re: [Amc-list] Torque and re-Torque

[Frank Swygert <farna@xxxxxxx>]

You have a point there Bruce! Having the deck surfaced if rebuilding should help a bit. 

The problem doesn't appear to be from warping, but that could be a contributing factor. The head bolts simply don't stay tight! I don't know why, but they have to be retorqued every 15K miles or so. If you don't, at some point after 15K (usually before 25K) the head gasket will blow. Retorque the head on a regular basis and it will be trouble-free forever. Has to be thermal movement in the block and/or head -- that's the only thing I can think of. I thought it might be the gasket material that once and didn't retorque it. After I replaced it again I retorqued the head every other year afterwards! 

I operated one of those engines (196 OHV) for 14 years as a daily driver -- I mean 5K-7K on it a year. I only had to blow the head gasket from not retorquing once. After that every other year it got a major tune-up that included adjusting lifters (solid lifters) and retorquing the head. Every year it got a regular points/plugs/etc. tune-up and at least one oil change. I usually change the oil between 3K and 4K miles. 

----------------
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:02:21 -0500
From: "Bruce Hevner" <scramblr@xxxxxxxxxxx>

Now I don't have a lot of experience with the particular engine being
mentioned here. But I DO have a LOT of experience doing all kinds of
automotive machine work (40 years).
 Has anyone using one of these motors and having that much trouble had the
BLOCK machined? In my experience the top of the block will be warped as
bad or WORSE than the head after you run it hot a couple of times.
 MOST head gaskets will only "crush" between .003 and .007. MOST of the
old blocks (no matter the type) I machine have an AVERAGE of .012 taken
off to get them flat. Sooo,, do the math,, ASSUMING your head is flat and
you put it together with .012 warp of the block and the gasket only
crushes .007,,, she aint gonna last long that way.

-- 
Frank Swygert
Publisher, "American Motors Cars" 
Magazine (AMC)
For all AMC enthusiasts
http://farna.home.att.net/AMC.html
(free download available!)

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