Heating head bolts?

DBF 30

DBF 30

Member
I am going to have to pull the head on my 30 roadster and most of the nuts on the head studs have broken loose with a lot of PB Blaster. However I have a couple that came loose with the studs and I have a coulple of others that just refuse to come loose. One had the nut/stud combination move a quarter turn and then no more, afraid that stud may break.

Question is, is it OK to use a torch to put some heat on the head nut in hopes of breaking it free (concered about localized heat might contribute to head warpage) or is it just better to use brute force and possible break off the head stud? I did a search for heating the head bolts and did not find much.

Also since I am there should I attempt to remove all of the old studs for new or leave well enough alone and just use new nuts on the old studs.

Engine is origional as far as I can tell so far. I want to do what is best overall without digging the hole any deeper than it allready is.

Thanks for the info!
 
do not heat the head any more than you have to. If I was you I would replace all the studs and head nuts with new grade 8.
 
If you concentrate the heat on the nut,the head will be fine.When it cools down some,melt a bit of candle wax on it & it will be drawn into the threads & make removal easier.
 
We have used automatic transmission fluid and soaked the nuts before. We've also used Aero Kroil it works very well IMO. I haven't used Gibbs Brand lubricant yet, but it's next. Good luck to you.
 
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