Trev, thats exactly what i was saying, without going into the technical details of it - the bolts stretch to apply the correct torque, that is why they are done with respect to degrees as opposed to suing actual torque figures. It will be fine, dont worry.
I reuse "single use only" bolts on the scabby beemer, overtighten them, reuse the head gasket 3 times - all sorts of bodges. Not ideal, but I've never had a problem, even having boiled the engine over 3 times since this was done. It's not good engineering practice, but these things are a lot more forgiving than people sometimes make out. Your torque wrench could be out of calibration anyway, so all the bolts could be out by a good bit. I'm with the others - just drive it, it'll be fine.....
yeah - this is fine as you know, if the bolts are done up to a specific torque only - but its an issue when the tightening procedure specifies an initial torque, followed by a set number of turns. 'cos if the bolt has allready been yeilded from previous use.... SNAP! Jules
What compression are you running? Unless you are running some highly tuned monster or 2 bar boost turbo, it will be fine. Regularly bodged head gasket changes on cars in the past with no problems.
