New to me 84 Corvette

Well these showed up I figured false economy re using the old million heat cycled head bolts. I really only want to do this once so what's $90 compared to $1676 cylinder heads. These are the 1/2 inch 12pt bolts so I won't have to remove any rockers when I do a re-torque. Time is money right? SCE gaskets are on back order and estimated ship date is 5/8/2020 so In a couple weeks I'll bust the Vette out of hibernation do some documented "testing" so I have something to compare the before and after results. Then disassembly will begin. I'll check back when the heads are off post some pics of what I find as far as how deep the pistons are in the bore. I'm hoping that it's more like .020 or less but prepared my heart for .025 so I wont be too disappointed.ARP Bolts.JPG
 
I think you will appreciate the quality of the ARP head bolts. I have the 12 pt ARP head bolts, but not
sure I can get in there to re-torque them without removing the rockers. I'm about to find out in
the next couple of days, as I'm in the same boat as you.
 
The bolts are of the up most quality that I can tell. I showed them to my father and he said that they liked like engine jewelry and I have t agree. Progress is slowed because of the back order but time is not wasted. I'll get the garage prepped,(I just hung some LED shop lights their awesome) the car and parts that I have which is pretty much everything except the head gaskets ready so things can go as smooth as possible. I'm starting to get really excited to start this next phase of the Corvette and even more exciting my 16yr old son is ready to get into it as well. He just got his drivers license so my interest have suddenly become cool to him too. He even asked the other day if he could drive this I told him soon... IMG_0125.JPG
This Belair is still my baby after having owned it for 31yrs now it's changed a lot since I brought it home at age 16 my Mom thought I was crazy(sorta right). Camaro front clip, currie 9"rear, munci m22 4spd, 144ci B&M blown 355sbc W/Dart heads, 3"exhaust It's a beast and is pretty well sorted now. The Vette is the new pocket book black hole good thing my wife likes fast cars too.
 
Crossfire Mike said:
These are the 1/2 inch 12pt bolts so I
won't have to remove any rockers when I do a re-torque.
Click to expand...
Unless you have stock rocker arms, you won't be able to re-torque all the head bolts. There will be 4
that you cannot get to. I thought the same thing when I bought the ARP 12 point bolts (PN: 134-3701).
Some gaskets don't require a re-torque, but according to SCE, their copper gaskets need to gone over
after one heat cycle.

https://www.scegaskets.com/tech-faqs/

NOTE: You have to back off each bolt slightly, then torque to spec. See BOLD text below.

STEP 7 - As with any performance application it is strongly recommended that head bolts/studs be
re-torqued. Start the engine and allow it to reach operating temperature without placing any load on
the motor. Shut down and allow the motor to cool to ambient temperature (over-night). With the
engine cold and following the recommended torque sequence, one at a time back each
fastener off just enough to relieve the friction set, then re-torque to specified torque value.

FP13_ReTorqueHeadBolts_02094.jpg
FP13_ReTorqueHeadBolts_02095.jpg
.
 
Grumpy,

What has your experience taught you about re-torquing head gaskets, specifically copper ?
 
How have you guy's been? I'm still actually waiting for the head gaskets to ship from Jegs its been like a month since I ordered them but I found out about the backorder right away.. Hopefully tomarrow I will get the notification as 5/8/20 was the expected shipping date. In the time being I did recieve these items todayIMG-3036.JPG

In an effort to shed some more weight I got this mini starter and these copper header gaskets to work with the AFR heads. I will have to trim a tiny bit to make fit perfect though. The budget is just not going to allow for real headers at this time but when I can get them I think this starter will help with the fitment and install. Plus working the cost in now will ease the pocket book pain later on. I did find a set of Hedman full lenght headers that are CA smog legal. Summitracing part #68441 and Carb EO# D-167-33 this is pretty cool as I'm pretty sure the stock manifolds will be somewhat of a bottle neck. I'm hoping their not as bad as I think they will be.
 
Never received a shipping notification from Jegs so I shot them an email. Just got a response that they don't know when it will ship... So I guess I'll just keep waiting. In all fairness though I haven't started any work yet and the car is in good working order right now. If I had the heads pulled off this might be a big deal but with the way the world is right now I can wait it out.
 
Having the ability to be flexible is certainly nice. You could also check directly with the manufacture,
they might be able to ship sooner.
 
Well I finally received an email from Jegs telling me basically they have no idea when the gaskets will ship. I'm very anxious to start this next phase of the Vette but understand the delay.. I've looked into other gasket options and they are out there but each one will kill my quench spec and I'm not sure if I want to do that as I really wanted to get away with running 89 octane. The car is actually non-op right now and carries no insurance and stored in my back yard so it's cheap to wait which is what I think I'll do. This extra time has not gone wasted as I have been saving funds to purchase headers so maybe this is the universe saying "Get max potential from the expensive AFR heads" I can actually now purchase the headers and the wife won't notice the hit on the budget.(we have separate checking accounts, works after 21yrs of marriage) I Guess I'm just venting right now but pretty sure I'll place an order for headers this weekend.
 
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could you bolt on a set of .140 over bore head gaskets?
would they function,?
yeah, but thats NOT something I would recommend doing


I might go with a 4.060 .030 thick head gasket
but obviously waiting for the correct parts is the better option
http://store.milodon.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MILODON&Product_Code=39990

headgasjk.png


http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/sbc-head-gasket-choice.11070/#post-79067

http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/head-gasket-related.1859/#post-50617

http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...ad-gasket-for-aluminum-heads.4403/#post-38976

http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...eventing-leaky-head-bolts-studs.50/#post-1253
 
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Thanks for the response Indy and Grumpy. I am so dead set on achieving what I consider a good quench that I am willing to wait as I really have nothing to lose but time. That being said if things go too long I will consider the other options out there and the one's Grumpy gave me are a good compromise I think. Who knew chasing horsepower could come down to such finite details... I'm willing as long the results pay off.
 
My Father just called me, he asked if I could come over and run/drive his 1970 Monte Carlo for the weekend. I guess I have a distraction from the Vette this car probably hasn't moved for probably a year or so.. It's actually a pretty awesome car factory munci 4spd,(super rare) 12bolt posi and I installed a GM Fastburn 385 about ten years ago. This is going to be a good weekend!!20180514_124910.jpg
 
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