ARP con rod bolts

Hello Sterling,

Stretch/crush techniques refer to the tensioning of the component to acheive maximum reliability.

There should be no problem to reuse your old bolts and nuts provided there are no visual defects such as cracks, splits etc. Especially check directly around the radius shoulder underneath the head of the bolt. Engine builders (good one's) will crack test each component to make sure.

Check also that the head is absolutely square to the shank. If it is not make sure you disgard the bolt.

The ARP brand is reputable so will minimise possibilty of failure.

Don't forget (I assume) that you are not building a race engine.

The bolts will be fine for a medium horse power street car.

I have never heard of torquing and then releasing the torque, and re torquing.

Generally the torque is increased sequentially across all bolts to a maximum torque. This is to assist correct location and setting of each component.

The 1977 Ford Escort Maintenance book (the yellow and white covered book) for the Mk2 Escorts clearly documents all sequences an torques needed.

the correct way to instal ARP bolts, is to measure bolt length, torque to spec, check bolt length, loosen, torque to spec, check bolt length, loosen, torque to spec, measure bolt length. theres a maximum allowed stretch length, and if it is outside this tolerance, throw in the bin. can be re-used as many times as you like, provided its still within the original stretch tolerances. torqueing and loosening 3 times is the generally accepting way to instal them, since most people dont have the equipment to check measure them.

You can get stretch bolts which CANNOT be reused, bot they are used on heads not rods. You should be fine.