1.8 gti cylinder head bolt torque settings?

Putting the cylinder head back on my 1990 golf gti convertible.  The new head bolts didn't come with the specific torque settings.

Haynes manual says:

10mm bolts
stage 1 -  65Nm
stage 2 - 1/4 turn


12mm bolts

Stage 1 - 40Nm
stage 2 - 60Nm
stage 3 - 75Nm
stage 4 - 1/4 turn.

Measured the bolts and they appear to be 10mm andso it looks like only 2 stages.

Just double checking that I am doing this right?????????

I know to tighten them in the correct order!

No instructions on the head gasket packaging?

No, didn't come in a pack.  Febi ones apparently

its the 12mm setting

I did the 10mm setting, 65Nm + 1/4 turn.

Pretty sure the bolts are 10mm, definitely smaller diameter than on my 2000 caddy sdi.

Should I be worried? can I still apply more torque to the bolts if needed?? 12mm got up to 75Nm + 1/4 turn

I'm not sure exactly what the 10/12mm thing refers to, but the 1.8 lump you have is the same as in the mk2 and they only have 1 torque setting which is the 12mm one you listed there. what part number are the bolts you used?

if they are the correct 1.8 mk1/2 type bolts then its fine to crack loose and/or re-torque as they can be re-used. I would follow the procedure again redoing 1 at a time rather than undoing them all and starting again if that makes sense

The 10mm/12mm looks like it refers to the size of the bolts.  When I put a measure across the thread area, it measures 10mm.  I have recently changed the head on caddy as mentioned above and they are thicker and so 2 different sizes must be used?
I thought these were stretch bolts also, not for re-use.  Although if I torgued them more, would it just stretch them more?  Someone mentioned they may snap?

I am no expert and respect your opinion as you have given good council to me in the past

theres only 1 type of bolt for 1.5-1.8 and that needs the 12mm setting, the 10mm procedure may be for 1.0-1.3 bolts? the diesel bolts are different again. either that or its for an older style of head bolt which has been superceeded, this is why i wanted to double check what bolts you bought:
http://www.vwspares.co.uk/g1gaskets.php

only the 16v and diesel bolts need to be replaced, the 8v ones can be reused. not that I would reuse original bolts, but since yours are new it should be ok. plus they havent been done up as tight as they should be even if they were stretch

looking again actually, the 12mm one doesnt look right either? the figures in my haynes, bentley and my VW manuals state 40nm, then 60nm, then either 1 stage of 180 degree or 2 stages of 90

rubjonny said

theres only 1 type of bolt for 1.5-1.8 and that needs the 12mm setting, the 10mm procedure may be for 1.0-1.3 bolts? the diesel bolts are different again. either that or its for an older style of head bolt which has been superceeded, this is why i wanted to double check what bolts you bought:
http://www.vwspares.co.uk/g1gaskets.php

only the 16v and diesel bolts need to be replaced, the 8v ones can be reused. not that I would reuse original bolts, but since yours are new it should be ok. plus they havent been done up as tight as they should be even if they were stretch looking again actually, the 12mm one doesnt look right either? the figures in my haynes, bentley and my VW manuals state 40nm, then 60nm, then either 1 stage of 180 degree or 2 stages of 90

This sounds familiar, I'm pretty sure this is how I torqued the head on my 2.0 8V as well…

Torker said

rubjonny said

theres only 1 type of bolt for 1.5-1.8 and that needs the 12mm setting, the 10mm procedure may be for 1.0-1.3 bolts? the diesel bolts are different again. either that or its for an older style of head bolt which has been superceeded, this is why i wanted to double check what bolts you bought:
http://www.vwspares.co.uk/g1gaskets.php

only the 16v and diesel bolts need to be replaced, the 8v ones can be reused. not that I would reuse original bolts, but since yours are new it should be ok. plus they havent been done up as tight as they should be even if they were stretch looking again actually, the 12mm one doesnt look right either? the figures in my haynes, bentley and my VW manuals state 40nm, then 60nm, then either 1 stage of 180 degree or 2 stages of 90

This sounds familiar, I'm pretty sure this is how I torqued the head on my 2.0 8V as well…

Those were the figures I was given by a local friendly garage when I did our 8v GTI on a mk2, he gets all his torque figures online, used new bolts as it was probably the first time the head had been off at 166k, 40, 60 then 2 x quarter turn was advice given

yeah its used for most vdub 4 cylengines, mk2 and mk3 16v as well, smallblock engines even though I'm just not sure if there was an earlier headbolt and procedure on the MK1 hence the 2 figures in the MK1 haynes mentioned above?

anyone know which settings it is need to do mine this weekend mine's a 1983 1.8 dx gti.

Doesn't the 10/12mm refer to the size of the spline bit used? May well be the same size as the thread though - I haven checked

if you've bought new bolts like whats in my link above then you use the 40nm, 60nm, then either 1 stage of 180 degree or 2 stages of 90

Just a quick resurrection of this thread and a bit of a warning (maybe?).

I am mating a DX head to an ADY block and I was following the torque specs from my old skool Brown Haynes manual for the mk1…had gone through stage 2 (60nm) and was working through stage 3 75nm. Got to bolt #4 and SNAP - Brand new and snapped in half!

I was bemused as I'm most definitely not that strong….but a a good googling does suggest that we should really only be cranking it through to 60nm  plus a nip…

It's a good job that I had a spare set of bolts kicking about!