replacing valve cover gasket....should I go ahead and retorque the head bolts?

[91tizzy]

As the title states. I know I have used this common practice on the turbo buicks. Just wanting some wise opinions on whether I should go ahead and do this to my 153,000 mile motor or should I take the dont mess with success approach. No head gasket issues, just figured since Im there I might want to think about doing so just to make sure the stock torque values are still where they need to be.

SO lets hear it

 

[1992awdlaser]

There's no reason to check them if they haven't been removed.

 

[kahl23]

Personally when the car is running right I really hate to mess with it. It is fairly common practice to retorque the headstuds after a fresh install once the motor has been through a few heat cycles, but if your motor is at 150k on stock components and still running fine, I'd personally say leave it well enough alone.

 

[91tizzy]

yeah thats what i figured...my alky is goin on soon with the 14b I have and figured maybe they could use checking but Im ###### gonna end up replacing the hg and throwin studs at it during the "tuning" process anyway

 

[Defiant]

Don't disturb comfortably-sleeping head fasteners. I'd be iffy about doing it to a Buick, even.

 

[turboglenn]

I wouldn't touch old stock bolts that have no issues, you will probably do more harm than good. Now if you were to run ARP's you can check them every so often with no worries (i do about once a year). This is because the stock bolts are "stretch to yield" (or some term like that) meaning they stretch at the correct torque range, so to try and spin them any more during "checking" may only stretch them more and leave them weaker than they already are.