I was looking in the haynes manual and it said the 97's LT1 like mine are torque to yield head bolts. Could non trq-to-yield bolts be used instead? No real price difference just a plain "will it work question". Thanks all.

 

Yes: TTY bolts work better, however they can't be reused since they become stretched.

 

That was what I was thinking about, rather than buy new bolts everytime I take the heads off.

Why do they work better? I would think it would be the opppsite as it would allow flex, ie not as good a seal? Just a thought.

 

Buy some ARP bolts and be done with it.

 

TTY bolts stretch. They have 3 positions. (1) elastic---which means they should return to original ( 2) plastic which means they will stay stretched (3) break point. The TTY is between (1) and (2). The clamping force is more constant and manufacturers shoot for larger margins of error in specs to compensate for assembly-line inconsistancies.

As Shoe mentions, a good set of ARP bolts with proper torque is the way to go. JMHO

 

X2. Used arp hardware when I did my headgasket

 

Ok, I get it now, thanks all.

 

I've never had a problem reusing headbolts on stock motors. If you add 100+ hp I would highly suggest ARP.