Really could have used one of those books with a giant "DON'T PANIC" written in bold, friendly letters on the cover Friday night. So I got my heads back from the machinist on friday. All nice and pretty with new valve guides (old ones had LOTS of wiggle room), hardened valve seats, cut valves and new exhaust valves. My friend and my brother-in-law came over that evening to help me drink beers and install the heads. After we got them both seated and ready to torque, it was about 9pm, and I had tunnel vision of at least getting the intake on that night. Torquing the first head down went off without any problems, but when I got to the first bolt to tighten in sequence for the second head, even though I kept turning the wrench, it didn't seem to tighten. So, I figured I'd go on to the other bolts and come back to that one. All the other bolts tightened to 80lbs just fine. So I went back to that first bolt and thought that maybe I just wasn't feeling the wrench right, so I turned it a few more times and.....SNAP!! I freaked out right away because I've heard plenty of horror stories of head bolts snapping off in the block. I called my brother-in-law who didn't have much encouragement, really, because he's a diesel mechanic and he knows that a head bolt snapped off in the block is bad news, especially after I told him that it snapped off at a really nasty 30 degree angle. All we could do though, was pull the head and assess the damage and then just... deal with it. Either we'd be able to get a drill in there and back it out, or we wouldn't, and we might have to pull the block to take it to a machinist. Well, I went to bed all pissed off and worried, expecting the worst. My weekend of putting my car back together getting her ready for Cruisin the Coast had turned into a weekend of worry and despair. I woke up Saturday morning even before my alarm went off and could not get back to sleep. I took a ride in my Monte Carlo to get her washed and kind of take my mind off things and on my way back home, my bro called me to tell me he wouldn't be able to make it first thing, but I should take off the head and assess the damage. His words of encouragement were, "Hey man, you oiled those bolts up pretty good before you put them in there, huh? With any luck, the shaft might be sticking out just enough to get something in there and back it out!" So I went outside to assess the damage. I pulled the head off and immediately noticed that there WAS a very small bit of the shaft sticking just out of the block. Excitedly, I set the head down and pushed my thumb hard against the snapped bolt and twisted. And twisted... and twisted...until finally, enough of the bolt had unscrewed to where I could grab it and unscrew it right out of there!!! I promptly jumped and screamed "Hallelujah!" and sat in my sunroom and drank a celebratory beer at 9 in the morning. Later, I bought a powerball ticket. (That didn't win). I'll tell you, this experience taught me that I shouldn't just automatically assume the worst. Had I pulled that head off that night, I'd have been able to do exactly what I did saturday morning and avoid hours of despair and worry. I was able to order a single head gasket from Napa that will come in Wednesday, and the guy who did the heads told me to bring in one of the bolts and we'll see if can't find one in his shop. So I'll be making it to Cruisin' the Coast by saturday after all! .......Hopefully.
You are fortunate. My OCC is down because an original head bolt broke in service. First, it broke flush with the deck. Second, the remnants were stubborn enough to break the first EZ Out. Third, the next size up EZ Out wouldn't budge it. Fourth, I had to drill it completely out and retap the block. Sh!t happens.
I do believe so. I went back to the machinist shop and he was able to hook me up with a head bolt for a 350 chevy and told me that I didn't need to wait for a new head gasket and to use the one I had. And that was his professional opinion, so I went home, torqued that baby down without a hitch, installed my pushrods and rocker arm assemblies and took my time with the intake manifold. The big days for Cruisin' the Coast are this Friday and Saturday. I actually took vacation on Thursday and Friday to work on the car, but with the really big stuff out of the way, I may not have much to do on Thursday. Hopefully! Gotta hook up lines, bolt in my headers, and crank her up to get it heated enough to retorque my head bolts. The Chilton book says to do that. After that, it's putting everything back together and making it look nice!
