[lovedemnewfies]

Would like your advise please on an issue that I just had noticed. My 1965 GTO with original 389 which had been rebuilt in the late 70’s. It was off the road and garaged for 15 years due tri power carb leak. Well I have it up and running now and have put about 200 miles on it around town. Today with the smell of burning oil I noticed that the passenger side head bolt had oil around it. Touching the washer and it had movement. Put a socket on it and it moved with little effort. Definitely not 95 foot lbs. question is can I go ahead and retorque all bolts in the specified order or do you think that gasket is shot. This was the lower bolt aft of #2 cylinder. Car has cast iron heads. All factory. Thanks. Chris

[Dragncar]

Torque them down and see what happens. I would not put the hammer down until it seems OK.

[lovedemnewfies]

Thanks. I thought there may have been an issue last week when I took it out and used the test to see if combustion gasses were entering water. I did not turn the chemical in the tester colors. Stayed blue indicating no gasses present in cooling system. Car runs like a top without any real issues although the rear main does leak. Using Brad Penn 10-40 oil.

[geeteeohguy]

What Dragncar said.

[lovedemnewfies]

Went ahead and retorqued the passenger head. Got a fair amount of movement on another outer bolt. With those results I should probably do the drivers head as well. Fortunately enough I didn’t snap any bolts, so my finger are crossed.

[mrmark1957]

Had a similar thing happen to me. Head gasket leaked a little and motor started to idle rough. Torqued both heads down, many bolts moved 1/4 turn. Leak stopped and motor ran smooth.no problems after that.

[25stevem]

I have seen the oil thing before even without the bolt being loose.

Some folks use way too much oil during assembly to lube up the bolt threads.
Then when the motor gets hot enough in a local area, and especially if the bolt is near a exh port to boil up and weep out from under the bolt head or even the washer if one is used.

Any retorquing to do must be done at room temp or there abouts.

You got lucky on this one!

[racegto65]

2 things come to mind.

First either the bolts were not torqued correctly to begin with or
Second the bolt or bolts have been retightened enough where they have been stretched to the point of no longer being able to hold.

[mrmark1957]

I have seen some head gaskets compress over time. Torque them properly one day, recheck them the next day before putting on the valve covers and some of the bolts want a little more. Mostly the thicker composite gaskets, never the steel shim ones.