Can you reuse the head bolts on a vg30e?

[300 z man]

Just got my heads back from the machine shop and need to know if I can reuse my head bolts for my VG30E (1988 300zx)?

[My RB25]

I would never re-use head bolts. Aren't all head bolts TTY's?

[MaximA32]

My RB is correct. All head bolts are torque to yield. Which means that they are torqued as to their limits and will not hold correctly if re-used.

[NISTECH]

There is a procedure for measuring the bolts to determine if they are reusable but its not likely you have the proper device to measure them.

Me personally I would never reuse a VG30's head bolts as they have been known to snap the heads off and wedge under the cam lobe destroying the timing belt and possibly bend valves.

[300 z man]

The reason I asked about reusing the head bolts is that I only heard it was 1990 and newer engines that you can not re-use the bolts.

What is the procedure? I work at a refinery and have access to whatever instruments it would take. Would need to know lengths and diameters.

[NISTECH]

There are specs to measure the bolts stretch. I dont know the specs on those bolts off the top of my head you would need to use a dial caliper to measure them and reffer to the factory service manual for the measurement. But again I will restate the head bolts on the 80's VG motor are known to snap off while driving the car, this is on the bolts initial use, we are not talking about on a reuse of the bolt which I would imagine would be more likely. I have never reused them on that engine because of this.

[300 z man]

Thanks for the info. I'll probably go ahead and get some new bolts. Didn't come this far to halfway do this.

Thanks again.