Is it neccessary to retorque head bolts?

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samc88

Drivels spiritual representative
Posts
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Location
Anglesey, North Wales
As above, is it really neccessary to retorque head bolts after a while after rebuild. Mine has a composite gasket and my granddads never bothered and had no trouble but some say you have to? My engines running in at the minute and just wondering really
 
not necessary to retorque but you should do it twice when fitting the head as first bolts wont be as tight once youve done the last bolts
 
Not required with composite gaskets but something I always do. Goes back to the way we did them 50 years ago and I have never had a gasket fail.
 
Erm, with my bike engines (aluminium heads if that makes a difference) composite gaskets always require a retorque and sometimes two if the motor had not done enough work.
Copper gaskets never require retorqueing (but didn't seal as well)
 
Aluminium might as I thought its more reactive to temperature than cast iron which takes forever to warm up? I dunno, probably wrong :D

I was only asking as I'd never come across the practise until I'd seen a few posts on here of people doing it
 
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