Blue Locktite on internal engine fasteners?

[NAM VET]

I hope to have my motor back from the machine shop in a week or so, he is putting in new valve seats, valves, springs, keepers, pistons, and other parts, and will set an initial setting on the valve adjusters, after grinding off the tiny circular ridge that Charles T has mentioned in prior threads. I'll set them precisely cold myself. I have new rod bolts and nuts and lock washers for the rods, but am planning to use Blue Locktite on just about ever internal fastener that doesn't need a thread sealant. I plan to of course clean the threads on things like the cam gear oiler bolt, things like that. He showed me that the new valves are tight in the their guides, as he told me, "these guides are money."

Anyone think it best to discourage me from this plan?

NV

[just me]

Loc-tite doesn't like heat.

[NAM VET]

I kinda wondered about that....

NV

[isaac_alaska]

red locktite doesn't soften until 500F, your engine should never see those kinds of temps anywhere you would have a fastener except for maybe the exhaust manifold. i don't know how oil affects loctite though, but i would imagine it has little to no affect.

[NAM VET]

Just read service temp of blue is up to 300 degrees F.

NV

[just me]

Still, don't even see a need for it. I've never had a properly torqued correct fastener come loose in any stock or slightly modified engine. Ever. Gas or diesel. Not even Harleys. If a fastener calls for sealant, it gets sealant. If it specs wet or dry torque that gets covered. Only modern late model plastoid/alumashit ever calls for a locking compound. (Because it is too flimsy to be torqued.)

[NAM VET]

Interesting to read the Blue Locktite technical data, here at:

http://www.loctiteproducts.com/tds/T_LKR_BLUE_tds.pdf

Also interesting to read that if you can't get a wrench on a fastener, you can use your fingers if you heat to 482 degrees. I can just imagine doing that! I won't likely use the anerobic Blue Locktite on any internal engine fasteners, although I do have the Locktite non-harding thread sealant for the appropriate fasteners, and use new grade 8 lockwashers and I have precision torque wrenches. I will use the ARP fastener "lube" on things like cap and rod bolts. Supposedly aids even torque when snugging things down. I have the VPW ARP head and manifold studs too.

I have a tendency to be very meticulous when embarking on some mechanical project, always wondering if I can think of some way to modify, change, improve what is there. When I finished my Superformance 427 Cobra replica, it was surely the most modified one out there. But then, occasionally, my "upgrades" have not worked out so well. Hence my query about fastener security. Thanks for the input, guys.

Going to shoot this AM with a good friend, I will take my full custom 1911 in 9mm, and my 1944 Inland M1 Carbine.

NV

[Marmalute]

As some people have already said, blue ( or red) loctite is not needed by design of these engines. Honestly neither is likely to create a problem if sensibly used and it is unlikely that loctite thread locker will migrate any place in the engine, such that damage will result.
Best of luck, D

[NAM VET]

I have always "had a soft spot in my heart" for Permatex products. When I was deep in the Mekong Delta, there were no roads, and I had a 17 foot Boston Whaler, which was waterlogged from all the bullet holes, for my transportation. With twin Johnson 40's, two motors because it was rare I could keep both running at the same time. I got to be a pretty good Johnson mechanic. It was never my wish to be slowly drifting down the Song Ong Doc river, with two dead motors, while Chuck decided to see how much fun he could have by setting up his RPK along the river bank. If you have ever been in a third world country, you will be amazed at what the local mechanics can do with the resources at hand. Our motors were maintained by Vietnamese mechanics up at Province, in Camau. But they had no awareness of the difference between SAE fasteners and metric ones. So our motors had so many stripped threads that parts were always falling off them. One day I was reading a car magazine, and read about a new anerobic resin product, by Permatex which was being touted as a cure for loose threads. So I wrote the company, explained my problem, and before long, Permatex sent me two bottles of their new product. It must have helped some. So when I see Permatex products on a shelf, I try to buy it if I need it, over competing products.

Another short story. One day, a Chopper on the weekly supply run dropped off a newly repaired motor, and one of my two interpreters and I lugged it down from the helipad to the inlet where we kept our Whaler. We had to lug that motor crossing a single palm log bridge over a shallow creek, and just below us in the water were the village young women frolicking in the water. With no clothes on. Of course, we had to balance the motor while traversing the palm log, and sure enough, we lost our footing and fell with the motor into the creek. So we lugged it back to the Helipad, and I radioed HQ that the replacement motor did not work, and to send me out another one. Here is one of my bodyguards in our Whaler, we were about to head somewhere to check this or that out. He had been on a patrol a few years earlier, out by VC lake, where we never dared go, since five slicks were shot down into the water in one insertion before I got there. His patrol was caught by a US gunship, and he was the only survivor, and used a Chu Hoi leaflet to switch sides. He prosecuted the war with all the relentlessness he had previously used against us. I suspect he sold his life dearly a year later, as it was swift justice when they or us captured a turn-coat. When the local Vietnamese recaptured one of their own, after a brief "enhanced interrogation" they would go out with the next patrol, and always try to escape. They never made it.

NV

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[Elwood]

I hope to have my motor back from the machine shop in a week or so, he is putting in new valve seats, valves, springs, keepers, pistons, and other parts, and will set an initial setting on the valve adjusters, after grinding off the tiny circular ridge that Charles T has mentioned in prior threads.

NOS tappet adjustment screws (p/n 7702641) are still available.

[NAM VET]

If my tappet screws look at all "ill", I will surely order new ones. My builder showed me how my tappets themselves are as new, and he has marked each for reinstallation back into their original bores. Thanks as always.

NV

[Elwood]

If my tappet screws look at all "ill", I will surely order new ones. My builder showed me how my tappets themselves are as new, and he has marked each for reinstallation back into their original bores. Thanks as always.

NV

In the two small block flathead Dodge engines that I've disassembled, the tappet bores had more wear than the tappet bodies. Hopefully, your machinist has checked the tappet-to-bore fit, and not just the OD of the tappet bodies.

[just me]

My bores are still nominal and the tappet bodies are good. However, the faces of the tappet blocks are bad. I've ordered new tappets. Follow the instructions in the engine TM. The dial indicator method showed any out of round that couldn't be measured with ball guages or precision pins.

[Cal_Gary]

Nobody paints a picture like you, Nam Vet! I hope one day to meet you and shake your hand in thanks for your service!
Gary

[NAM VET]

thanks, just got up, being retired, I get up when I want to. Coffee and cream, looking out over the salt marshes, which is such a pretty sight. Except Wife and I were mauled by the tiny no-see-ums yesterday when we had brunch down by the water at the marina. How can something so small cause such an itch is beyond me.

anyway, thanks for the complement, and I will travel over to the soap box for the story of our Cat's great battle.

NV