Re-torquing heads
 

I've got a head gasket leak. It's really minor. My car can go for about 2 months before I get the low coolant light again. I've seen a few people say something like, "If it's a minor leak, you could try re-torquing the head bolts. That might take care of it." However, I've never seen anything, anywhere about somebody actually doing that on a Boxster and/or any results from that.

Has anybody here actually done it? Did it work or not? Where did you find the torque specs and tightening sequence?

Most of the critical fasteners on these engines are "torque to yield" type that should not be reused or retorqued; they should be replaced as the old ones will not give you a true reading.

That said, rarely can you correct a blown head gasket by retorquing the head due to component warping.

Yeah. I was wondering if those were that type of bolt. So people saying that is really just silly.

Thanks for the info.

And.... 9 times out of 10 it is a small crack in the head from overheat and the gasket is fine. Re-torque generally won't fix a crack. :)