Opinion needed

[quadman21]

I blew my head gasket the other day on my 440. I have already been down the road of stipped cylinder studs and all the crap assoiciated with 440s. It's been running great for about 6 months without skipping a beat. It has two harescramble races under it's belt but the other day the head gasket just blew. When I bought the new one I checked the studs and they are not stripped. In fact, the nuts were not at 33ft-lbs. So I installed the new gasket and it torqued down just fine. Now should I go back after I run her hard and re-torque the nuts?

[VegasEx'r]

Have you ever replaced the head studs? I have heard from several sources that the studs stretch & are only good to be retorqued 2-3 times (& 3 is pushing it). Also, I think that Sparks makes larger studs (12mm instead of 10mm or something like that), maybe they'd help.

[UglyMotha™]

if you look in the manual it shows the length the head bolts should be up to like a thou of a inch measure them and see if there not within those tolerances then replace them



ah yes the answer to your question, i always retorque my nuts after break in:huh

[quadman21]

Good points, I almost measured the stud heights. I had it in my mind then just didn't do it. If it happens to blow again I'll probably replace the studs.

[e gracie]

do as i do .run a copper head gasket last u a life time, strip an rebuild as often as u feel fit,will never let u down. steds might but gasket will not:devil

[quadman21]

I've heard of the copper gaskets but where do you get them and how much are they? (just in case)

[e gracie]

beleive it or not i cut them on a laser machine @ work from 22swg copper, scaned it in digitised it to clean it up and away i went....supplied a few over here now but i am in the uk unfortunatly.....must be some 1 over there who can supply them