Farmall Cub

Just had the head machined for the 240 Utility I recently bought, and began reinstalling it today. When torquing an old head with the original bolts, do you take them all the way up to the original manual specs, or is there any "deration for antiquity"? I used antigalling thread lube, and so far have them at 65 ft-lbs. Specs call for 80-90 ft-lbs, but the bolts are feeling pretty tight right now with an 18 inch long Craftsman micrometer torque wrench. The last thing I want to do is break a bolt. Should I keep going?

I would shoot for the 90 ft.lbs. The engineers wanted that torque for some reason.

If you are afraid of breaking a head bolt, buy new ones.

I would also re-torque the engine after it has run for and hour.Let it cool down then do it.It is a good pratice to do on older engines that you reuse the head bolts.Kevin

Once you retorque, it is also a good idea to check the valves, warm, since it is an overhead valve engine.

Thanks guys for your suggestions.

Torqued them up to 80 ft-lbs today, which was the lower end of the spec, but I'm going to leave them there. Probably worrying unnecessairily because the bolts looked fine, but didn't wan't to take any chances on a 1961 tractor. I'll check torque, and the valve settings again, after running it. After I bought the tractor, I discovered one of the exhaust valves was frozen open, presumably due to insufficient oil flow. New valves, guides, and hardened seats. Cleaned the clogged passages in the rocker arm assembly. Should run better with 4 cylinders!

Thanks again!

Let us know after ya get it running how its doing. Kevin