Are 3.2 flywheel bolts reusable?

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Can 3.2 flywheel bolts be reused? I have a set that have a few hundred miles on them.

Are these reusable or penny wise pound foolish?

[Dan J]

re-usable

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Thank you Dan.

[Elombard]

Interesting, the SC bolts are not re-useable IIRC??

[Eagledriver]

You can get different opinions on this. I am not afraid to re-use them if they are in good shape (ie heads still have nice sharp edges for the tool to grip).

-Andy

[RWebb]

yes; the opinion that counts is the one in the Porsche AG Technical Bulletin

they say you can past a certain year, which I forget; besides the heads, inspect the threads carefully

Red Loctite is often used too

[timmy2]

Measure the old versus new, stretched, toss them.

[KTL]

Originally Posted by Elombard

Interesting, the SC bolts are not re-useable IIRC??

SC and Carrera flywheel bolts are same part number. Actually same part number from 78 thru 97.

Red loctite is overkill, especially for a street car. Just make sure they're properly cleaned and torqued. Often times people get the Loctite shmoozing all over the crank & flywheel interface anyway (put it in the hole, not on the bolt), which makes a mess of the mating surface. If it's an aluminum flywheel, the threadlocker will actually pull the material off the flywheel when you remove it later on.

Medium strength blue Loctite (242) is plenty sufficient and is actually recommended by folks who know bolts

http://arpinstructions.com/instructions/204-2801.pdf

BTW a good trick for a thread chaser is to NOT use a thread tap. Instead, use an old M10 x 1.25 bolt (sorta hard to find, so use an old flywheel bolt) and cut some slots in it along it's length to the tip of the bolt. Dremel cutoff wheel works great for this.

The slots allow for any crud encountered by the threads to be collected in the slots as you run the bolt in/out of the crank. Then just pick the crud out of the slots with a sharp pick, screw, whatever and repeat until clean.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Great information Kevin, thank you. Might get a motor back in my new car this weekend.

[RWebb]

heh N.B. - I did not say you should use Red Loctite, only that it is often used...

[Walt Fricke]

Red Loctite (very carefully applied)is pretty much required for the 6 bolt cranks if you are spinning the engine up to the 8,000 area (i.e., a race motor). Not so otherwise.

Porsche said the big bolts on these 6 bolt cranks could never be reused. But I've reused mine (because they are a bit expensive) several times over, and on race motors, and despite using 50% more torque than is specified, so reuse isn't a guarantee that things will certainly break.

However, despite being nine, the bolts for later cranks aren't really that expensive (are they a 12.9, or some lower grade?), so when I rebuilt my 3.0 street motor I got new bolts despite my penchant for sometimes not believing what I am told. But if Porsche said these are reusable, so much the better.

[KTL]

The bolts for the 9-bolt cranks are nice bolts. 12.9 property class, 12 pt "triple square" socket head and not that expensive. $2.50 each is the current price on them from Pelican. Much easier to swallow than $12 each for the 6-bolt crank!

Agreed red loctite has it's place in extreme cases. Actually I think the harmonics of the 70.4 crank in the 7000-8000 rpm range are what prompted the change to the 9-bolt arrangement? I just think that the red goop is pointless for a street engine that goes 6500 max (or maybe an occasional zing to 7000) once in a while. The 12 pt. tooling is a little bit pesky IMO and can get munched up if bolt removal is made more difficult. So I say leave out the red loctite and save yourself, or a future owner, the hassle of cooking the bolts with heat in order to get them loose.

[Walt Fricke]

Actually, an impact gun spins out these red Loctited bolts with no problems at all. No heat needed.