Guy at the shop in Amarillo swears by retorquing head bolts after 500 miles, my foreman calls it a waste of time
Was grabbing lunch at the taqueria next to the shop in Amarillo when an old diesel guy started telling me he always pops the valve cover back off and retorques head bolts after the first 500 miles on a rebuild. My foreman says the newer gaskets and torque specs make that step pointless, and he has been building motors for 20 years without doing it. I get why the old guy does it, cheap insurance in case something settles, but pulling a hot engine apart again on a customer's dime is a hard sell. Who here actually does a recheck, and has it ever caught a loose bolt before it turned into a blown gasket?