head bolts going soft and varying torques??

hi

i think the headgasket is blowing on my 3a bottom end conversion that i did last week as i'm getting loads of white vapour out of the exhaust.

i'm off to get a comp tester in 5 mins to verify but its not looking good.

when i installed the head i didn't use any fitting dowels in holes 8 and 10 are these a must??

also there was some confusion as to the torque value of the bolts as my haynes said 65Nm with a 1/4 turn, whereas the gasket set leaflet said 60Nm with a 1/4 turn.

i was told to go with what was on the gasket so i did :dontknow:

now when i was torquing them up some of them seemed to go soft as if they were just about to shear 8O is this right??

on top of all this i've been reading vwvortex all day and pretty much all of the posts say 40, 60Nm then a 1/2 turn???

i'm going to get the head skimmed tomorrow and refit, i don't mind messing it up this time as its my first go but i think i'll set the car on fire if this happens again!!!!

can somebody clear this up once and for all ?

what is the correct torque value?

are the locating dowels essential?? or can an alternative be made??

is it right or wrong that the head bolts are going "soft" as if they'rre about to shear??

thanks alot

Chris

the headbolts can go soft, they are stress bolts and epand under heat and when being torqued. it may feel like they are about to shear, but they will only go so far into the head. As they are stress bolts, if you have been using the car for a while, i would renew the headbolts again.

 will see if i can get the head torque details that the technical data book provide tomorrow or friday. just need to know what engine you are running?

as for the dowels, they just make it easier to locate the head and gasket to the block, i would personally use these, but an alternativ is still ok, it just makes it easier when locating the headbolts.

hope this is of some help.

dan

Might be worth mentioning i had to use an airline to blow the head bolt thread bores as i had oil go down them, so when tightening the bolt down it would have to compete with compressing the oil inside the bore. Once blown out felt much more confident when torqueing up.
Nick

Also note that these engines use strech bolts. They should be replaced when installing a new head gasket in order to get the right torque (What ever value that actually is) You might get away useing them a second time. But I wouldn't recomend it after you shear one off in the block. That's a pain. I've had regular head bolts shear off in a block. And it's a frustrating mess.