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Old 06-27-2012, 11:07 AM  
vdbucks
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Join Date: Jul 2010
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RebelR View Post
Even though they may appear to be even, they stretch when torqued. Make sure if there is a specific pattern that they tell you to follow.. you do so. And if the head was over torqued, it may have flattened the head gasket to the point that it cant be re-used.

Also if I'm not mistaken, some head bolts are designed not to be re-used. Maybe this is the case with yours
It probably has to do with them being tightened unevenly.. I'll probably just get a torque wrench tomorrow and do it that way.... if I can find the specs that is.. the bike is an 2003 American Eagle 250cc (it's really a throwaway bike at the end of the day since I mainly bought it to learn about bikes before spending real money on one... but I want to figure hit out if possible considering the leak wasn't there until today so I doubt - hope - no real damage has been done to the head considering I haven't even test driven it yet).. I believe it's made in taiwan and haven't been able to find any info thus far online... As far as the head bolts are concerned... the block has been removed a few times and put back together with no issues until now, so I think they're ok and it's more an issue of mechanic error than anything else.

Quote:
Originally Posted by TisMe View Post
Are you certain the heads didn't get swapped? Happens more often than you'd think and will cause leaks. Second, get a torque wrench and look up not just the torque specs but also the bolt order. There is a pattern that must be followed to tighten the bolts, not following it can warp the heads.

Use compressed air to blow out the oil galleys in the heads, these can get blocked and cause leaks as well as the ones in the block.
I'm certain the heads didn't get swapped.. as far as the specs go, I doubt I'll be able to find that info so I'll probably just try different torque settings and stick with the usual cross tighten that I generally do for things like this.
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