Pinto Cylinder Head Bolts

[James Doulton]

Having got my old head off my 2 litre Pinto, I am about to fit my replacement head, which is an injected head from a later model. My engine has the old style head bolts - with the 12 point fixings. These do not need to be replaced when refitting the head (just as well because they are over £50). However the tightening sequence seems rather laborious as you have to run the engine for 15 minutes and then retighten the bolts.

The later models (after about 1984 or 85) used different bolts with Torx heads. With these there is no messing about with running the engine and having to take it apart again to retorque the bolts. These bolts stretch and you torque them in two stages and then turn them 90 degrees more to get the right preload. You have to replace these Torx bolts every time you take the head off but they only cost £12 or so.

Is there any technical reason why I shouldn't just get a set of Torx bolts and do the head up the simple way or am I missing something?

[James Doulton]

Of course, a brace of 40 DCOE's are on their way.

[Pete Clayton]

I think Ade re-used stretch bolts though!