Head stud nut coming loose?
Turbo Mini Forums

Has anybody ever had this happen before? It seems to be just one stud that came loose by the stat letting coolant escape between the head and block, thought the gasket had gone at first as the temp gauge shot right up at a set of traffic lights, nipped it back down with a torque wrench and seems fine again.
I know it wasn't missed when the gasket was changed last, I'm properly properly anal when it comes to doing head studs up, go in the correct order in 3 different torque settings, nip down to 55ftlbs, then keep going round the tightening sequence at 55 until nothing moves and everything is satisfactory. The torque wrench isn't that old and is correctly stored.

Do you retorque after after a few hundred miles? Have you pulled the stud to see I there's any sign it has stretched?

Also worth saying, my quality torque wrench was spot on calibration wise after 10 years, but my cheap one was a fair bit off from new. Worse than that, I can't calibrate it to be correct for both ends of the scale at once as it's just a flawed design.

What torque wrench you got? If you want another calibrated one to compare to, you're welcome to borrow mine

second on re-torqueing after 100 miles and checking the wrench for accuracy. Its been well proven on the forum!

I've got one from halfords, known to be made by a good brand, not sure who though.

I've never ever retorqued studs since I've worked on minis, which is why I do it like I do, and never had any come loose before, or heard of any coming loose for that matter!

chances of it not being torqued in the first place? what with it being one of the last in the sequence? I'v done it before, now i always put a dab of paint on head bolts (and big ends/mains/flywheel and other super critical bolts) when final torqued.

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

Found out what it was now, when Shauna changed the thermostat she asked me about a locking nut being on one of the studs, thinking she meant on the thermostat studs I told her to remove it. Turns out it wasn't on one of the thermostat studs and instead it was a head stud, so as she's removed the other nut that must've been left on from god knows what, it's dislodged the head nut underneath it a few weeks ago. Nothing but a communication error in the end, no harm done either thankfully!