I'm replacing my head gasket, and the people who did it before obviously did not do their research. They reused the head bolts and a lot of the head bolts tension while breaking them lose were inconsistent. Now what I want to know is, when I'm using the torque wrench what do I set it to? Irregardless I'm going to read the manual and do further research but I really like using these forums to gather my information. Being that I'm a newbie when it comes to wrenching on cars. Any hints and tips on making sure I get the best outcome of this headgasket replacement would also be great.

 

There are three stages and you have to go in the correct sequence. You optimally want to use the beam torque wrench but you can use the click type of you go real slow and make sure not to over torque. Obviously use new head bolts. You can get away with using the old ones if the head wasn't warped but obviously that's not the case with yours so you will be getting new ones.

 

I did my research checked my manual and yes there are three stages to tightening theses head bolts. Makes perfect sense on why my head gasket blew after the fact I over heated it for that little bit of time. And the two middle head bolts were the least tightened out of them all. And the head gasket was blown on the two middle cylinders in the front. Totally makes sense on way it did what it did. I was very worried being that this is my daily and I've only had the car for about two weeks lol today I'm gonna make sure the head isn't warped and go from there. I know the final stage for tightening is like 78 lbs. and there is no chance in hell these guys were at 78 lbs. and to top it off the head bolts were definitely reused. So I bought new head bolts and going to take it from there.