Head bolts

[Guest gavin]

Hi all,

Just a quicky - my replacement engine has done 8,000 miles and I have never re-torqued the head bolts, should I? If so to what figure?

 

Thanks, any info would be appreciated.

[Guest John T]

Good God Man!!! Those heads are about to fly off!!!

 

But yes, you really should have done this awhile ago.

 

You will be really surprised how loose these bolts will be.

(mark them before you torque and you'll see)

 

Torque them to 30 ft. lbs and you'll be fine.

 

There are 6 bolts in total, start with the inner ones first then do the one below the sparkplug and the hidden one under the cap. (sometimes a bear to get off)

 

Set your valves after and have a beer!

[RichMaund]

I agree. I always do mine during the break-in maintenance. I have always found them a tad loose from gasket compression and the heat cycles the engine has gone through.

 

After that? I retorque them every few years. Usually when I have a really boring day in the shop during the winter. Nice time to get up close & personal with your bike!

[jrt]

Not that I want to instigate anything

But you loosen, then retorque or just torque the bolts?

 

Cheers,

Jason

[Guest John T]

Good question.

 

It is good practice to loosen the bolt maybe a quarter turn then torque it.

It is hard to "break" the tension on a bolt that's why you loosen it, then get an even turn till you hear the torque wrench "click" or get to the right figure on a beam type wrench.

 

Just loosen one bolt at a time, not all of them.

 

Happy wrenching, or as the Brits would say, happy spannering??????

[Lex]

gavin,

 

For more detail, check the link to my page on adjusting the valves and setting the head bolt torque on the FAQ page.

 

Cheers,

 

Lex

[Murray]

This is the biggest load of !@#$ I have ever come across no they don't. The local Guzzi guru of 20 plus years seems to think its completly unesscary. Unless there is something obiously wrong there is no need to mess with them. If you look through the service schedule of the Guzzi there will be no metion of retorquing the heads by the factory an they make the things they should know. Seen quiet a number of machines that get ridden big km's hard some raced the only time the heads get retorqued is after the head has been removed for some reason or another. Just ride the thing!!

[Guest russ]

I agree with Rich and Murray that retourqing should only be necessary if you notice a performance issue. I would guess that thiose of us (not me) wh are hard on them running the redline alot might see some issues but at almost 7k, I have not. I did re-tourque at the initial break in but that was done My valves appear set and I won't think about it unless they go out of adjustment significantly or I develop a leak

 

Of course if you like to tinker........

[Mike Stewart]

Ahh, the owners manual says tightening of cylinder head nuts at 1000 miles! See page 145 in the owners manual for all 2003 V11 series.

I would be pissed if I paid for the first 1000 mile service and someone overlooked retorquing the heads.

 

Mike

[Murray]

I ride w mainly with guys on japanese inline fours and myt bike spends a great deal of its time in the upper part of the rev range or up agianst redline. Enter the reason I am keen for a sixspeeder so I can drop the revs back down onto the torque curve instead of falling off the top of it. 160 psi both sides (what the workshop manual says for a new machine) no leaks after 73 000kms I'll leave em alone for now.

[Lex]

My owners manual says the heads should be re-torqued at 1000 miles and every 18K miles after that.

 

I have to ask Murray why this is so upsetting to him. It is easy to do and doesn't take much time. If you are paying someone to perform the work I would think a good Guzzi mechanic would add well under an hour to your bill if this is combined with a valve adjustment. Even if 99 out of 100 or even 999 out of a 1000 engines work fine without following the recommended procedure what do you gain by not following the manual? Maybe it's just me, I also use UFI oil filters. Both seem like cheap insurance but that is just my POV.

 

If you read Guzziology Dave Richardson recommends this procedure, I got the basic outline of the task from Australian Guzzi guru Pete Roper. FWIW, I was also told by some "experts" that the procedure was not necessary. When I checked I found the manual, Pete, Dave and some others said it was a good idea. One the other side I found some Guzzi mechanics who said it was a waste of time. In my mind that constituted a pretty strong vote in favor of setting the torque as described by the manual, no one claimed it hurt anything and some pretty well respected people (and the factory) said it was worth the time. I'll add that the near total lack of QC from the factory (at least when my bike was made) has caused me to check pretty much everything I can get to on the bike.

 

JMHO,

 

Lex

[Guest gavin]

Thanks for the info everybody,

Although there was no sign of any of the bolts being loose it was well worth doing as it only added a maximum 30 minutes to the valve job and gave me a good feeling about it, ie knowing that all is well - because if we are honest you cannot, hand on heart, ever be really sure what you will find when checking anything on a Guzzi!!!!!!!!