M20 head bolt swap - oil in threads?

[sklbase]

Hi, I"m a noob, but this past weekend I swapped out my head bolts on my M20 for ARP studs. The process went relatively well, but there was a significant amount of oil in a couple of the block threads, making it difficult to three in the bolt, but just using my fingers I was able to work them in gradually. It just struck me that that is likely not normal, and may be an indication of a problem.

Any thoughts?

[peterman]

Did you do a head gasket/Tbelt as well?
If not, how did you swap out the bolts? one at a time, torquing the stud nuts down before loosening the others? Or did you take them all out at once?
If you didn't remove the head I would say that is not the best method. You likely allowed the head gasket to decompress and oil partially filled the threaded holes, or you had a weeping head gasket anyway.

[jeffnhiscars]

They should def be replaced one at a time if you are not removing the head and if there's too much oil in there, with no where to go, it can crack your block. Let's hope that's not the case but an FYI for anyone doing head bolts

[sklbase]

I swapped them out one by one and torqued them down in three steps before moving on, in the pattern laid out by ARP.

Sounds like my head gasket needs replacing. No harm done. I haven't fired up the engine to this point.

[sklbase]

And it seemed to have been weeping - there was some old, crusty oil caked on those old bolts.

[Seawolf]

If the studs don't have a relief slot machined in them you need to get the oil/gunk out of the hole before fitting the studs. Otherwise you risk hydraulicing and either the studs won't fully screw home or cracking the block under pressure.

If they do have a relief slot you should be good, though I'd get as much muck out of there as I possibly could. Don't know how long your HG will last switching the bolts without changing it.

[TobyB]

That's normal... a chunk of 1/4" copper tubing taped onto your shop vac
is the quick way to fix it.

t