Loose Head Bolt Nut

[eppre]

Has anyone had a head bolt nut come loose?

I have 10 hrs on my AeroVee and when I went to torque my head bolts and set my valves I found one of the head bolt nuts had come loose.

I called tech support and they had never heard of one coming loose.

Anyone else had this problem? My head gasket is leaking now and I will try and put on a new gasket and see if that will stop the leak.

I hope the head is not damaged.

Peter

[mike.smith]

First I've ever heard of that. Is in conceivable the nut just got missed during the initial torquing?

[daleandee]

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[wlarson861]

I'm with Dale on this one. I have had head bolts loosen by several foot pounds but never what I would call loose. Order a new set of fire rings and remove the head and check for damage from detonation(burnt or fractured valves) and start again. When you torque the heads make sure you do each bolt twice at the interval torque as the first bolt will be under torqued when yo get the last one up to torque.

[vwglenn]

I've had it happen in my bus. Opened the valve cover to adjust the valves and found the nut on the shelf below the valves. Attempted a re-torque and the stud would start to rip out of the case. I couldn't apply full torque. Sold the engine for a couple bucks to a friend who was desperate to have a running engine and I told him about the issue. Not sure if he put new case savers in it or not but the last I heard (it's been a few years) that engine is still running.

[radfordc]

Do check to see that the case saver isn't pulling out of the case. That happened to me once.