Leaderboard

YES. I did do a retension [re-torque] . I first took it out for a little test drive when it ran like crap at first, so it went up to temp. I did the retension it when the cam was off. And for the right side I have a ground down 17mm socket so I only need to remove the valve cover. The retension I did in the correct order starting at the centre bolt and then working around one by one in the correct expanding "box" formation. I put a dab of clean oil between the bolt head and the washer before tightening. Some bolts had that "jumping" little click when approaching the 47 ft/lb max. I did not want to open a "can of worms" and do a thread chase on each bolt. But, I know that steel against aluminum is a "no contest" situation. ha ha . And, it was that left side bolt #8 [a corner bolt] that felt dodgy when I loosened it up. It took a little more pull on the wrench to work it out 2 or 3 turns and I was very concerned that I might have been pulling out some aluminum threads. But ALL GOOD as it went back to 47 ft/lb with none of that scary "give" in the feel of the wrench. And, I refused to wimp out and go to a real professional mechanic. In this case "tenatious" is my middle name. 12 years ago [on the removed EA82], I was 100% successful in stripping out one head bolt. [Bravo, Ricky!] . As luck would have it, the bolt hole was just the right size for a Heli-Coil thread tap. And, against better advice, I installed two (2) Heli coils into the depth of the hole and the engine was good-to-go. And, my lack of forethought also led to adding water improperly to that same engine when it overheated. I heard a metallic "TICK" and knew that I had just ruined the block. But after properly using CRC engine block sealer I was once again good to go, and that was 12 years and 150k miles ago. Two of the main things that led to my car repairing history are 1.) It was either do-it-myself or junk the car. 2.) Once I got a little familiar with the workings of a Subaru car I had so much admiration for the quality and logic of the design and the solid construction that I made my mind up to keep going.