I have a 99 gmc 5.7 vortec motor just replaced the head gaskets. The heads are iron or steel when i went to tighten down i started in middel of head and worked my way out ,1 wave at 25 ft lbs 2nd at 45 and 3rd at like 67 on all bolts.is this going to be ok . I found out it might need to be set in degrees what the heck is this all about anyways. some one said it ends up with around 70 ft lbs anyways when you do it that way , am i close enough not to sweet it.

 

I'd say it sounds good. Degrees is just as it sounds. Imagine that your ratchet on top of the head is a needle on a round gauge marking 12:00 being 0°, 6:00 being 120° etc. There's a gauge out there somewhere for it, but in reality, I think you'll be fine.

 

hey thats great news ,was hopeing i did not destroy the gasket or shorting the life of the gasket. thanks for the reply.

 

I've done head gaskets on my 2.8L V6 that's in my Fiero, and I never used a degree gauge or messed around with it. We just torqued 'em down to the spec and left it be. If you really want to do it perfect, then get an angle torque gauge and do it based on the service manual's instructions. Other than that, I'd just say use your torque wrench and get 'em close.

Something like this is what I'm talkking about.

 

New bolts torqued down to specs is what they do at the dealer.

 

when you do the torque specs that gets the head on tight but when you turn it an extra set of degrees thats called torque to yield.

basically thats when you stretch the bolt just a little but so its elastic in a way so it can hold the head tight on the gasket so when it heats up and everything expands it holds and when it cools down the bolt can shrink down a keep pulling the head down onto the deck to keep a perfect seal

 

Exactly. As far as I know, it isn't a perfect science, but just using a torque wrench will get you close to the perfect threshold that the torque to yield would get you otherwise.

 

well i know on my friends 305 it was like 78 foot pounds on the long bolts with a 50 degree turn