I've been building cars for 17 years. And from my experience Ive Never been satisfied with Torquing head bolts.

I recently Built another all motor b16 with ARP head studs, freshly decked block, freshly shaved head everything was perfect clean with brake cleaner with new honda gasket. i followed ARPs instructions and step torqued the bolts in 3 steps in the order the factory Honda manual says to with Their ARP lube on the washers and threads. I turned the motor and made sure everything lined up turned free etc. took it back apart decided to clay the clearances. I had it torqued to 70 foot lbs 1 time and 40 foot lbs 2 times. I put a cometic overbore gasket on to take care of the only issue it had. threw the motor in the car and it ran perfect. But at about 400 miles IT started leaking right after break in and slowly got worse until 800 miles when i decided that my coolant was being super heated. I took the head off. It took about 30 foot lbs to break some of the head nuts loose off the studs and 150 foot lbs on the others. it was leaking between the pistons and also piston to coolant passages around the sleeves.

I took the head back off checked to make sure it wasn't warped . I also checked the block to make sure it was flat too. I put it back together with a TODA thinner gasket because the cometic one was on backorder. I cleaned all the threads and nuts and washers and all the surfaces again. I lubed the threads with 30 weight and put the washers and nuts in oil until directly putting them on the studs i torqued it first at 25 foot lbs then 45 . Then i was called away from working on it for 2 days. i went back to work on it today. set the wrench to 72 foot lbs and click the first head stud nut was already 72 foot lbs. I wondered WTF? it didn't squeak or anything so it was still lubed. I opened my roommate's tool box and borrowed his new torque wrench, set it at 72foot lbs . i checked all of the nuts and only 3 of them moved. i backed them off in reverse order 1/4 turn and re-torqued to 72 foot lbs .

so anyways the TODA gasket was way better quality looking than the stock one or the cometic one. Im not sure at all if the head is torqued right. i think im going to leave it for tonight take the nuts back off and use molly lube on them tomorrow. I have so much money into this motor that i cant stand not knowing for sure if they are torqued right. I'Ve run boost and 400 hp on stock sleeved b16 and never had a head gasket problem. But out of the 20 or so honda motors i've built ive never used ARP studs untill this time.

anyways cliff notes: what am i doing wrong did heat soak do this>?

 

My ARP head studs where a pain in the butt also, i followed bambams instructions in his "building a reliable lsvtec" thread, i followed ARP's instructions, and my H.G. still leaks oil. I tore the cams off a third time to check the torque, and 4 studs were down to like 60ft/lb. Hopefully the 3rd times a charm.