Replacing Head Gasket

Jinma284 · Jun 27, 2013

I'm ready to put the head back on my 254 Jinma. Am I supposed to put a little oil on the head bolts?

flusher · Jun 27, 2013

Jinma284 said:
I'm ready to put the head back on my 254 Jinma. Am I supposed to put a little oil on the head bolts?

I use Permatex thread sealer because some of the threaded head bolt holes in the block penetrate into the coolant galleries. Don't know if this is relevant for your situation but I'd check those holes carefully before bolting down the head.

Good luck.

Rich Waugh · Jun 27, 2013

Nope - head bolts are usually, unless specified otherwise, torqued down while clean and dry. Adding oil will decrease the thread friction and the given torque reading can then result in excess elongation of the bolt - later maybe fracturing. That's what I've always been told, at least. On a couple of engines the manufacturer did specify assembly lube for the head bolts, but only two times that I can recall.

I do recommend lightly chasing the bolt holes with a thread chaser or tap and then blowing them out and wire brushing the bolt threads clean. Then a clean dry gasket on clean cry surfaces and you should get a good seal. Remember to follow the manufacturer's torque sequence and bring each bolt up to full torque in one smooth pull from the point where you feel real resistance.

bjr · Jun 27, 2013

Keeping in mind he's working on Chinese tractor so he would probably need a special ordered metric tap. Might be kinda hard to get. bjr

Rich Waugh · Jun 27, 2013

Even Harbor Freight tools carries metric taps and many hardware stores do these days too, with the proliferation of metric threads on modern cars.

Jinma284 · Jul 16, 2013

Got the head gasket back on tonight. My son came over and helped by torqing the head bolts and finding top dead center and then setting the valve lash. I think I can do that now. Will try it myself when I retorq and reset the valve lash in abut 2 weeks. Also replaced the fuel bowl, fuel line, with the kit that Ronald sells at Ranchhand Supply. Replaced the thermostat, heat sending unit, filters. coolant and oil. Primed it up, cranked for about 5 seconds and she fired up. Really ran good. Now to put the front end loader back on and clean all the limbs out of the peach field that have been cut off the 1000 trees.