Thoughts on re-torque'n

In my dear ol' tractor's shop manual, it says to torque the head bolts then re-torque with the engine warm.

On the head gasket package (Fel-Pro)it says no re-torque necessary.

If it makes any difference, it's a flathead engine.

Recommendations on whether to re-torque, or not?

Thanks!

Randy

Diesel, yes ifn' ya feel the urge.

Gasser, no need, in my view.

Allan

Never retorqued, never blew a gasket on anything but those stubborn thermostat cover gaskets. Course the local NH dealer introduced me to some sort of sealant made by 3M that even fixes that.

Seems I didn't have the thermostat in the groove on an old Ford p/u and broke the ear off the casting; was on the road and it was a real problem. Must be gun shy cause I barely torque the screws down and makes leaking a problem (did).

Main reason for not retorqueing is oil. Seems my engine rebuilds slobber oil all over everything when you turn them on to run em in and mess up my nice new paint and new parts and all. On a Chev V8 I even bought those little clip hootuses you put on the rockers to try and stop it and it just slobbered that much more.

Mark

Link

However, much to my surprise, FelPro does not rule out retorqueing the head IF YOU WANT TO... see item #5 at the link below.

http://www.federal-mogul.com/cda/content/front/0,2194,2442_7359_17015,00.html

I usually re-torque composition gaskets (those made of steel and any fiber material) and steel gaskets, which are more or less "uncompressable", I don't re-torque as a rule. Composition gaskets tend to crush after a short running time, thus the seal can be lost if they're not re-torqued.

Even the steel gaskets I find myself checking them sometimes--just in case one of the bolts stretched a little more than the others.