<VV> Re: bolts loosening

[Chuck Kubin]

Hey DJ,
Correct. And without over-engineering the situation, what Seth and I are saying is the safety wire keeps vibration from backing off the bolt or nut. It won't ensure correct torque, retorque the hardware, ensure the surface is flat, straighten your valve cover, correct a warped casting, decompress a compressed gasket or give you shop rags a nice, spring-air fragrance. MIcromachine the surface and retorque the bolts as you see necessary, especially if you think heat and expansion or gasket creep or compressed materials changed the torque value. It WILL keep the hardware from backing off from where you left it.
You may be overthinking the need to machine surfaces. Consider how much gap a cork valve cover gasket fills. How thick are your head gaskets, and how much effort do you put into flattening the top of your cylinders or the lands in your heads? When assembling these parts, what do you do to make sure all three cylinders are flat to each other?
The method Seth suggests has worked great for the last umpty-ump years on aircraft, where you have large rotating masses trying to tear the machine apart, despite all our efforts to balance everything as perfectly as possible. Mechanics assemble the machine once.
 
Chuck K

-------But on a gasketed surface......------

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