Project Honda Civic EJ: Building the B18C1 Part V

 

 

 

While installing the rocker assembly, it helps to use a rubber band to keep the primary, mid and secondary rocker arms together as an assembly.  This  also helps ensure that the locking pin used for V-TEC engagement doesn’t fall out.  We didn’t have enough rubber bands, so we found Annie Sam’s secret stash of new hair bands and used those instead.  Sorry Annie.

 

Once the rocker shaft was completely installed, we removed the band around each rocker arm and shifted our attention towards preparing for the installation of the cylinder head.

 

Since our factory head bolts, had seen hundreds of thousands of miles of service, we opted to replace them with an ARP stud kit.  (Regardless of mileage, it is recommended to replace the head bolts.)  Before installing the ARP studs, each hole was chased and cleaned out to be certain that any debris that could cause false torque readings or improper thread engagement was removed.  With our ARP head studs being installed into a blind hole, we could not measure their stretch, which is the ideal method to measuring the preload of a fastener.  Instead, we used a common torque wrench.  In doing so, we made sure to use the fastener lube supplied by ARP to ensure proper torque readings. 

 

Installing the studs and nuts without the ARP fastener lube can falsely manipulate the torque reading due to the increase in friction.  This could result in the stretch and preload of the stud being lower than specified.

The ARP stud, washer, and nut configuration promotes the fastener to stretch in a vertical axis instead of both stretching and twisting from torsional forces like an OEM bolt would.  This results in more accurate torque readings and insures that optimal clamping forces have been achieved.  In addition, the fatigue strength of the ARP studs is improved by rolling the threads after the heat treating process. Doing so deforms the material of the stud and introduces compressive stresses into the threads, improving the fatigue strength of the ARP studs.

 

The washers are precision ground to produce a high level of parallelism between the mating faces.  This parallelism helps ensure that the studs can be accurately torqued and that the clamping force does not degrade over time.