Hi This is Jerry, i have a 96 imperza 2.2 engine and i am replacing the head gaskets. My question is do you reuse the old head bolts or do you get new head bolts. Let me know Thanks Jerry

The service manual does not say the head bolts have to be replaced. I believe they can be reused because it is aluminum head and aluminum block so the bolts do not stretch to yield like they would on cast iron.

What he said and the machine shop that did the valves on my left head told me that they reuse the same head bolts on 2.2L Subaru engines.

(edit) And a mechanic working at a dealership in Montreal told me the same thing.

i don't know of any subaru engines, including all EA, ER, EG, and EJ series engines (mainstream anyway) that require head bolt replacement.

The bolts on these engines are "stretch bolts" (whenever a tightening spec is given in degrees from a specified starting point the bolt "stretch" is the tightening factor)

 

The original question:

do you reuse the old head bolts

 

My answer:

3 times, after re-using 3 times I would replace the bolts.

 

Noting:

Refer to the Subaru manual for tightening specs, they are different from Haynes, and turbo motors are a different spec from non-turbo motors.

I asked this question myself because I'm used to having to replace the headbolts on other motors. However, I couldn't even find aftermarket head bolts, and the consensus was to re-use the head bolts. The heads and block are aluminum, while the bolts are steel. If anything is going to give, it ought to be the block threads stripping out.

 

I re-used the headbolts on my '98 2.5L. In fact, they were some of the cleanest looking bolts I've ever seen. Again, I'm used to seeing steel bolts in steel blocks, and I often see carbon crust, oil, and rust on the headbolts. The Subi bolts looked great.

ARP makes a head bolt or stud kit I believe for Subaru engines; I've seen it on summitracing.com

 

The torque procedure was revised for some engines; I've seen articles on endwrench.com about it.

Hi This is Jerry, i have a 96 imperza 2.2 engine and i am replacing the head gaskets. My question is do you reuse the old head bolts or do you get new head bolts. Let me know Thanks Jerry

 

are you removing the engine to do the job?

Hi This is Jerry, yes the engine is out of the car. The reason i am removing the heads is because the engine had something in it. It would turn about 320 degrees then stop i could turn it back the same amonut something was in the engine. The engine is a 96 imperza 2.2 zero carlance engine also this engine was in a front end crash. Well i got it apart and i started to laugh it had to much carbin in it, the crash jared it loose. The o2 sensor must have been bad i have seen less carbin on a carb engine. Now time to put it back together. Thanks Jerry

Hi This is Jerry, well not putting the engine back together yet because i got the heads all clean up and i found a bent valve one in each head. Well it's valve job time, the way i found this out was to spray brake clean into the intake runners. All the valve are closed and brake clean ran out of one of the intake vales it's bent, one on each head. Life gose on i will get this engine running with the holley 4 barrel carb on it. Thanks Jerry