Update: The shop debate over reusing head bolts on a 6.7 Powerstroke

Last week at the shop, we had a 2015 F-250 with a blown head gasket. The owner wanted to save cash and reuse the old head bolts. My lead mechanic, Dave, said he's done it a dozen times with no issues if the threads are clean. I argued that for a $30 set of new ones, it's cheap insurance against a comeback. We put the new bolts in, but now I'm curious. Has anyone here actually had a reused TTY bolt fail, or is it just shop lore?

2 comments

2 Comments

kelly.jenny7d ago

So Dave's never had one stretch and lose clamp load? That's wild. What's the longest a truck with reused bolts has gone for him?

paule536d ago

Wait, you're telling me Dave has never seen a single bolt stretch? That's hard to believe. I've seen it happen more than once, @kelly.jenny. Bolts are made to stretch a little, but doing it over and over weakens them. The longest I heard one of his trucks go was maybe 80,000 miles before a major gasket leak. That's just pushing your luck.