Are Festiva 1.3L head bolts reusable?

[FoMoCoMotion]

Hey guys, first time poster. Does anyone know if Festiva 1.3L head bolts reusable? I recently bought a 88 Festiva as a Father son project and converted it to fuel injection with a Megasquirt ignition and T30 turbo. Needless to say, we quickly blew a head gasket. I had the head surfaced and replaced the head gasket, less that 100 miles later, Ihave another blown head gasket. Are the bolts reusable and if not, where do you buy replacement bolts? Autozone and Advance Auto don't carry them. Thanks for helping a noob!

[FestYboy]

they are reuseable, what are you torqueing them to? are you allowing the head to seat before adding boost? and what boost pressure are you running?

[FoMoCoMotion]

Thanks for the info. I'm using a T3/T4 turbo at 8 pounds of boost. I'm new to turbos and to 4 cylinders in general. I torqued the bolts to 82 pounds... that's as far as I was willing to risk it since the stock setting is 56 to 60. I'm afraid I'll warp the head or break a bolt if I go any further. The MegaSquirt is also being a real pain when cold starting. In retrospect, I should have started with a Fuel injected car, but too far into it now

Do you think the turbo is too big for the B3?

[JoDan]

Have you tried torquing to factory specs. Thats the one thing that seems out of place here

[FoMoCoMotion]

Yes, the first replacement was done to factory specifications, two step torquing 35-40, then 55-60 with a FelPro gasket. The head was also surfaced before reinstalling. The 2nd time, I tried to find new head bolts but when I couldn't, I re-used the OEM bolts and increased teh torque. Any ideas or suggestions? Too much boost for such a tiny engine?

[crazyrog17]

Of course you're cleaning the mating surfaces well with acetone or brake clean. As well as idling the engine for a while to melt the surface of the gasket material before any hard driving?

[JoDan]

Did you have the head check for cracks when you had it resurfaced? Did you scar any part of the mating surfaces during dismantling/reassembling? Are you getting coolant in the oil or anything along those lines or just loosing compression?

[FoMoCoMotion]

Yes, clean with brake cleaner, both head and block and heat cycled twice before leaning on it at all.

[rollertoaster]

A t3/t4 is rather large for a b3, how is the spool? On 8psi with a turbo that large you are moving some serious cfm. I've always been a proponent of large turbos because they can make much more power safely, than a small turbo on the same psi.

I wouldn't think overtorquing the head bolts would help, and actually may be actually be compounding the problem. I would install another gasket and stay out of boost until it is properly heat cycled the retorque. are the plugs or pistons showing any signs of detonation? A small fueling, or timing error can make a big difference in knock.

Don't give up on the megasquirt yet, once you get the bugs worked out you will be glad you didn't use the factory injection.


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[FoMoCoMotion]

I haven't gotten on it since installing the 2nd head gasket. I'll drive it around gently for a week or so first and make sure I have the MegaSquirt sorted out. The cold start there is currently kicking my butt. The only way I can start it cold is to prime it first. Once warmed up, it starts easily.

[FoMoCoMotion]

If I continue to have trouble with the head gaskets... I may look into a BP or BPZE swap. Probably about the same performance as the B3 with a turbo... I'll miss the oh so cool sound between shifts though