Removing one head bolt

[dennis]

Let's say you replace a head gasket, torque down all the head bolts in the proper sequence and tightness, and then remembered you screwed up and forgot that one head bolt went through the shroud before going through the head (not that I would do anything that stupid....yeah, right). Anyway, is it ok to remove that one head bolt and then replace it the right way, torquing it to specs, or should all head bolts be loosened and then the entire head be re-torqued in the proper sequence?

[bgsengine]

as long as engine is cold, just remove the necessary bolts (may be as many as 3 or 4 in some cases) and torque down to specs when finished. Just be sure the engine is dead cold (room temperature) and you'll be fine - as long as the head itself does not move in relation to the block and gasket , it is even possible to remove all but one bolt , and then put them back in to specs, if it came to that. (Not so with torque angle and torque to yield bolts though, but you'll never see those on engines that have brackets bolted by way of head bolts, etc.)

[dennis]

Thanks, bgsengine.