Posted by David Sherman on Monday, May 09, 2005 at 7:38PM :
In Reply to: headbolts posted by RICHARD BOWMAN on Sunday, May 08, 2005 at 11:19AM :
I've never seen an engine with ALL the head bolts tapped. I like the tapped headbolts for mounting various accessories like an oil filter or cable clamps. Without them, you have to take out a head bolt to mount whatever it is, which risks messing up the torques and causing the head gasket to leak. On old engines with head studs rather than bolts you can get the same feature by making sure the studs are long enough to have room for two nuts on the fine end. Then when you need to attach something, just hold the bottom nut with an end wrench while loosening or tightening the top one.
I'm sorry to hear the tapped bolts are no longer available. One more thing I'd better salvage off of any junk engine I find.
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