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vt commodore 3.8 ecotect

dutchyh56

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Hi i am doing my head gaskets on my vt3.8 ecotec,i have had the heads serviced and parts all cleaned up ready to putt back together,i have 1 conern,i run all head bolts through to clean out any rubbish,all bolts go very close to touching the block but the bolt hole on the right hand side top near the firewall does not go through,can anyone please tell me why this is because i measured the bold and found that it will not ba able th torgue to correct preasure.
 

Not_An_Abba_Fan

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Is this with the thickness of the head gasket added?

Have you had the heads machined?

It's unusual that the bolts won't go back in where they came from. Are all the bolts the exact same length? I couldn't tell you on an ecotech, but some engines have different length head bolts for some positions.
 

dirty hands

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very strange ....

you might have to lift the head
leave the gasket aside for a bit

head back on ...and try all bolts and threads

are the head bolts new
 

dutchyh56

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Yes the head bolts are all new,i have had the heads shaved to make sure they wern't worped,i screwed one of the old bolts through every hole to clean them out,they all go right through and nearly able to sit flat on the block,but the top one on the drivers side near the firewall don't go through like the others
 

dirty hands

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bit doggy ...want to try a thicker flat washer on the odd blot to get the job done
 

Not_An_Abba_Fan

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So have you actually tried putting the bolts in with the heads on? Bit hard to understand what you are doing, but it sounds like you are screwing the bolts into the block without the heads on. Can you use compressed air to blow any debris out of the hole that the bolt won't go in all the way?
 

Turtl3

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it sounds like ur saying that it is only the one bolt the will not go all the way through...but does it screw in far enough that it will be able to pull tension on the head when its installed?

i would be grabbing a light and having a look into the hole to see if there are any visible signs of damage to the thread... it may even be a blind hole in the block that will not allow the bolt to go the entire way through, or it may be an open hole that has some of the blocks casting that protrudes out into the line of the bolt hole on the inside.

poke down there with a screwdriver and torch and see ifs full of gunk of whether u hit metal at the bottom. as long as it goes down far enough to pull tension on the head then u dont have a problem
 
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