Listers,
About a week ago I had the cylinder head on my spitfire rebuilt. During the
time the head was in the shop I ordered head studs, washers and nuts from
VB because none of the other normal suppliers had them in stock. VB did
so I ordered them. Well I got the head back on and have put maybe 50
miles on the car since. Right after assembly and during the first drive I
noticed some antifreeze seepage on the rear corner of the head gasket. I let
it go and by the time I got about 50 miles on the car I check again and there
was now seepage around more than 2/3s of the head gasket.
At the time I thought that since I had one of those "cheap" imported click
bar torque wrenches that you can buy for about $25 I figured maybe it
wasn't calibrated right. I decided to buy a nice torque wrench and went and
bought Sears best 3/8" drive torque wrench. I then did a comparison
tightening down some bolts on an old engine block. The Sears wrench
seemed to tighten just a touch more before "clicking". So I figured that the
head would just need a retorque. Well, after getting the rocker train
removed and getting all set up to start retorquing them I backed off the first
nut 1/4 turn or so. I then set the Sears torque wrench for 2 pounds (48)
more torque than I used with the "import" wrench (46). I then started
tightening the nut back down. But the nut keep tightening and tightening
and I though at first that maybe the Sears wrench had a problem. Then all
of a sudden I heard a "snap" and the tightening of the nut got to be real
easy. I though, oh no, snapped the stud. So I tried to remove the nut and
the stud and all came out of the head.
What had happened was the threads in the nut had stripped. The stud was
fine. I check it by running a new nut bought locally up and down the
threads of the stud.
As near as I can figure out what happened was VB supplied some real
cheap nuts that are probably not even grade 2. My understanding is head
studs are grade 8 and head nuts are grade 5.
I went to the local hardware store and bought some grade 5 nuts and am
now in the process of installing those on the head one at a time as I
retorque it.
That is the LAST time I'll be critical mechanical components fro VB.
They've burned me before and I didn't learn so hopefully this time I will.
Just sign me PISSED OFF in Lincoln!
Brad (Lincoln Nebraska 402-464-1502)
My Triumph Web Site Http://www.141.com/triumphs (updated 4/29/99)
My Dodge Web Site Http://www.141.com/dodge (updated 4/7/99)
1964 Spitfire4 BFC25720L
1962 TR4 CT288L -- 1965 TR4 CT38888LO parts car?
1959 TR3A TS41311L -- 1959 TR3A TS53523L parts car
1951 1/2 ton Dodge Truck B-3-B-108
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