hay whats up guys? i beleve my head gasket in shot on my 89 lsi tracker 4x4 8v 5 speed. do i half to replase the head bolts when i replace the gasket? thanks joe

that is good question. for the 8 valve motors people say you can reuse the old ones, but it is recemended to put new bolts on. the story goes once they are torqued down they stretch and become weak if they are torqued down again and they could break. In the head set there is supposed to be everything you need to complete the job, but no set comes with new bolts. infact it is very hard to find the bolts sometimes. the new bolts are also not cheap. bottom line is if you can afford it buy new bolts. hope that helps a bit.

That is true with the "stretch bolts" that are in some engines, I'm not sure
that Suzuki head bolts need to be changed, I've never had any problems
reusing the old ones, however, new ones don't need to be cleaned, and
if you don't have a bench grinder with a wire wheel cleaning them can be
a PITA

Wild

I think the 16 valve bolts are "stretch bolts" , but I think the 8 valve are not. I was talking to johns foreign engines and he said you can reuse the bolts on an 8 valve but he always puts new bolts on a rebuilt motor.

ok thanks guys i was just curious about that and i did try and find some and had no luck im in new hampshier so i dont know if that has anything to do with not being able to find them. but i plan on doing the gasket soon so i will see if i can find them i will change them if not then i will be extreamly careful when removing the old ones. thanks joe