EJ20G headbolt torque and gasket question, yes I searched

[snowjob]

I'm redoing my head gasket on my ej20g and can't find out what the torque specs are for the head, Also will a 03 2.0l WRX head gasket work for this application?
Thanks
Frazer

[napphappy]

I will give this a try.

You have to do it in order.
If you are looking at the head, the order is...

(FRONT)IN 3 1 6

(FRONT)EX 5 2 4

1. First tighten them in order to 21ft/lb

2. tighten again in order to 51ft/lb

3. back off all bolts 180 degrees

4. back off all bolt another 180 degrees

5. tighten bolts 1 & 2 to 27ft/lb

6. tighten 3, 4, 5, 6, to 14ft/lb

7. in order tighten bolts 80 to 90 degrees
DO NOT EXCEEDE 90 degrees

8. Repeat step 7 DO NOT EXCEED 90 degrees

Then your done.

I know its wierd but thats how they say to do it

[snowjob]

Ok, wow, that's the most complicated way to do I've ever heard, Tahnks man, I would have goen and done it all wrong.

[Project_Legacy]

yea it really is. LoL. those torque specs are for the ej20g and not the ej22t are they? i dunno if they are different or not.

[bmxpunk]

THis is what Chiltons said for the ej22t. SO my question is, is this correct. They were ALOT tighter than 21ft lbs. I mean mine took 1/2" breakerbar +cheater bar. Is that bad?

[snowjob]

diddo the ej20 ttok me quite some time to break loose. i mean it was tight as hell. has anyone torqued to these specs before ?

[Matt Monson]

The variances from engine to engine are only a couple of lbs. So, if you follow the general sequence, you will be fine. For some reason it lists a non-turbo a few pounds less than a turbo on the last measured settings. I don't see why since they are the same core heads. My manual says 80-90 degrees on the last two steps. Just don't exceed 90 degrees.

And they should be hella hard to break loose. You are going a full 180 degrees tighter after setting to 20 something ft/lbs. Based on the force required, I would guess somewhere in the neighborhood of 120ft/lbs or so.

[bmxpunk]

why dont they just say 120 lbs, instead of making us do the hokey pokey

[napphappy]

so that they can make us feel stupid because we dont know why we have to do it, but we do it anyway.

[206er]

the final tightening is by degrees so I took this to mean that above a certain torque it is not accurate enough(one bolt might bind more than the others causing uneven bolt tension?), so degrees will get them more even. If that makes any sense.
the initial tightening before backing off must be to seat the gasket eh?
sort of on topic, who replaces head bolts? I reused mine as the FSM did not say it was necessary. I could not figure out if they were stretch bolts.

[snowjob]

I was going to reuse mine, My head gaskets arrive from England this week

[Matt Monson]

I have reused them on every Ej series engine I have ever built. And when I talked to both CCR and Cobb about it, they confirmed that that was fine...

[Legacy777]

Yup....I reused mine. I used a different torquing procedure though.

[bmxpunk]

how did you do your torque josh?

What did you guys use to get the old gasket material off of the block nad the heads? will a fine brass brush in a drill work? I am gonna try to put mine back together tonight.

[Legacy777]

Yeah, you can use a wire brass brush. When I did mine, I used sandpaper. The wire brush didn't dawn on me until I had finished.

I was told that the procedure was proprietary to them, whether that's true or not, I can't say for sure, but I'm going to respect that.

[bmxpunk]

ahh geez build anticipation them you squash me!!!!

thanks.

[Legacy777]

Sorry. Just use the FSM procedure, and you should be fine.