Cylinder head bolts: to replace or not to replace? Answer is YES.

[Louis-Alain Richard]

As a rule of thumb:

If the last part of the torque sequence involve adding something like a
quarter or half a turn, then yes these are the "stretch-to-yield" type
bolts. And yes you "must" replace them each time.

But the bolts that you will buy are less than 1$CAN each... And your car has
only 12 of them. 

I am sure you know all this but... 
Don't forget that you will need the special 12-points (or triple square) bit
to remove the head bolts. Canadian Tire sells the Lisle #60750
(http://www.lislecorp.com/tool_detail.cfm?detail=1017) for about 20$CAN.
Very useful for any VAG-product owner.

Louis-Alain
83 urQ with a rebuilt head as of last spring.



-----Message d'origine-----
De la part de radek at istar.ca

Hello listers.

I'm doing my first cylinder head rebuild (on a 5-cyl) and would like to know
what to do about these bolts.  I have always thought they should be replaced
because of stretch but Bentley does not mention a thing about it.  Can I
reuse them?  Should I reuse them?
TIA

Radek
88 90Q
91 V8Q
5-sp.