gasketboy

Hello,

So the machine shop who resurfaced the head had to break one of the dowel pins to get it out. Sadly they didn't have a corresponding one to give me. Since I had no idea those were of actual importance apart for initial alignment, I put just one of them in, carefully aligned the head and torqued it to specs. Let's say i run it like that, I figure one dowel pin is enough to counter the sideways movement of the head over the block, but won't be enough to prevent a rotational movement along the single dowel pin axis. How much does a head move along this rotational axis? Are the headbolts enough to counter this movement? Do I really need to reopen everything, try to find a second dowel pin, order new head bolts, wait two weeks for them to arrive? I'd rather not. I've looked everywhere, but most people forget to put both of them which obvisouly lets the head move. But what about having only one of them?

thanks for your time!

TomCat39

I would re-open. They are that important in my opinion.

There is no way the loose fitting head bolts can stop rotational movement, there is at least 3mm of play on all side walls of the bolts to the side walls of the bolt holes.

motoxxxman

yup, having both dowel pins installed is crucial.

gasketboy

Thanks! i followed both your advice and installed the second dowel pin which I found at the scrapyard.