studs, loctite or not?

Engine assembly is underway!

For the cylinder and cylinder head studs, I'm wondering if I should use some loctite. Would like to hear opinions on that. Yes or no, red or blue, what are your thoughts?

thanks,
Debby

Debbie, I use loctite (red, because I have some in stock) on the studs but not on the nuts and bolts that hold it all together.
Dave M

Debby
Definately. My choice would be a medium to high strength / high temperature loctite . The blue i would assume is 242 and that is service removable. While it will work it would not be my first choice. Not knowing what type the red is i would guess that it is still your better choice.I'd rather worry about getting the studs out later then to worry about them coming loose when i don't want them to be.

Debbie,

I would not use threadlocker of any kind on cylinder head, or barrel fasteners. How are you going to be able to re-torque?

On the engine, I use loctite on any fasteners that are not able to be re tensioned, without a strip down. I.E. conrod bolts, flywheel bolts ETC.
Then on the frame I will use loctite on my rebuild on any bolts/nuts which do not have a thread lock mechanism, say spring washer or nyloc nut.
There are a lot of nuts on the Commando without locking, so my quess is the commando does not transmit much vibration to the frame area? But again a dab of loctite not only holds the nut tight, but lubricates on assembly.
Phew, hope this makes sense, just my two bobs worth!

Richard

i have seen you a few times on the jerry doe website why not try matt at c.n.w norton he is not far from you i just shipped ( last oct ) a cnw norton to the uk from him and that that man is the best, old nortons benefit greatly from new technology i know i had an interstate new in the seventies and his nortons are light years infront whatever he charges you it will be more than worth it , as a lot of engine spares and suppliers are of dubious quality and will lead to heartaches after heartaches send your engine and gearbox to him for a rebuild and you will be a happy woman ( if they exist !! )

Richard

I've bought some parts from Matt, including his x-ring chain conversion and his upgraded oil tank. He's a class act, and his products and services are very nice indeed.

Several of our club members have CNW bikes and they are truely beautiful. The level of detailing is absolutely stunning and overall his builds are as good as they get. Would love to have one of his bikes but I don't have that kind of coin. Plus I like building it myself. Although, in the case of the motor rebuild, that mainly consisted of pulling it apart and then taking the pieces in to various machine shops. As it turned out, everything needed machine work. There wasn't that much I could actually I could actually do myself, not being a professional machinist. But it's been a good learning experience.

Debby

When I pulled my engine apart for rebuild at 30k miles the really critical threads like crankshaft studs etc had been centre punched which destroys the thread, but it certainly aint going to work loose. Was this done in the factory?? Loctite comes in loads of grades so a weak threadlocking type will safeguard against vibration, it is no good if any heat is involved such as cylinder head bolts, but torqueing these down in the first 500 miles will make them stable. Hope this helps it is just my experience to date

A couple of points:

When I took my con rods to an engineering shop ( a well reputed one) for re sizing, he was horrified at the idea of using loctite on conrod bolts. He said it affected the torque settings.

The crankshaft bolts are supposed to be centre punched and they should be replaced each time the crank is rebuilt.