turning head around

[wan37]

Just wanted to be sure I can turn head around on a sky hawk 48cc?I need it for clearance.It would be hard to get spark plug out too.Do I need to replace head gasket then?Do I need some gasket sealer too? Bunch of questions.Just one more The grubee site say to tighten head nuts at 10ft lb seems awful tight for me what would you say?

 

[motorpsycho]

yep, I flipped mine around on my 48 c.c. with no problem (it's an angle plug head and i needed the clearance for the spark plug). I had not ridden it very much before i flipped it around (maybe 60 miles) and i just used the same head gasket that was on it. No sealer needed, and i did this over a year ago. But if your engine has a lot of miles on it, i would just get a new headgasket if i were you. AND someone else may know more about using any kind of sealer on the head gasket, but I personally didn't use any on mine.

I just tightened the head nuts snug...but what's snug to me may not be snug to someone else. I didn't use a torque wrench, i just guessed on the tightness.
I know that some will argue this because you should use a torque wrench on something such as a cylinder head. But, I have been rebuilding engines for many years, and after awhile you just come to know when something is tight enough or not. But, on the china 2 strokes, you do risk stripping the nuts or breaking a stud, so you have to be careful.
If this were a car engine or a motorcycle engine, I definitly would have used a torque wrench because guessing on something more substantial than a china 2 stroke would be disasterous.

I have not had any problems with it since i flipped the head around, and the head gasket doesn't leak at all.

 

[wan37]

I thought turning it work.I don't really think I need a wrench to tighten at 10 ft lbs but these china bolts and nuts are junk and 10 just seamed to tight any way.I'll give it a shot with a new gasket.Thanks motor.I'm still not sure about the sealer stuff but it looks like they didn't use any on factory.

 

[blue 48]

as far as sealant goes generaly i think not from what i read. buuut i put some loctite on my gasket surfaces:-/ 2years ago !! and still riding it every day ill not open it up until i have to, if at all. needless to say ive had no head probs
P.s as far as getting the locktited surfaces apart at some point ill leave that for FUTURE ME

 

[HeadSmess]

cross 4 pattern, tightening slowly and evenly until theyre tight, youll never have a problem...

torque wrenches are a cop out... unless youre working on REAL engines.

 

[wan37]

good to hear you guys say just tighten snug by hand because a wrench I would over tighten.

 

[wan37]

Oh wait a moment is there anything I should do inside of head why I got it off?

 

[Purple Haze]

I've had no problems re-using head gaskets, I just flip them over. Never used any kind of sealer, don't see any point except making disassembly more difficult. If you haven't done so already, toss those acorn nuts and get some good ones at a hardware store. While you got things apart, it never hurts to get out the sandpaper and level out the mounting surfaces, polish the chamber, and clean out any casting flash in the ports.

 

[motorpsycho]

good to hear you guys say just tighten snug by hand because a wrench I would over tighten.

no, no, you are misunderstanding.
use a short wrench or a 1/4 inch drive socket and short ratchet to tighten the nuts, just don't go crazy and over tighten them.

 

[wan37]

wait I said that wrong in the other post I meant a torque wrench I would probably break them,with a small ratchet I did good it's done now.It runs great.Thanks again,I rode it for a good while today.