The mistakes we make and taking the time to fix them - Classic forgot to put the washers on head bolts

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Joined
Oct 1, 2025
Threads
3
Messages
6
Location
Australia
So I got a couple of new heads for new motor I am building ( new block to ) and the head kits did not come with washers. Of course when I took apart old motor I did put those bolts and washers aside. Washers in a bag labelled. I have not lost em. But I did not put em on the new head that is now torqued down on the new motor. Bet I am not the first person to do this.

1. Did I damage either the head or the block with this mistake? Do I need to check the head for cracks now? The bolts felt fine. Came up to torque fine. I've done these heads before and it all felt the same. That is one of the reasons I didn't catch it. I did oil the bolts properly before I torqued em up and followed the FSM apart from the washers bit :/
2. Good news is kit seems to have come with enough bolts for each head to do two heads. Maybe they knew in advance I was going to muck this up!
3. Can I just remove each bolt in sequence and replace with new bolt and washer and torque to spec or do I need to also throw away the head gasket to and start again?
4. I do have some Toyota OEM gaskets but the gaskets that came with kit look like the gaskets that came with a previous rebuild kit that seemed to work great. Old Motor died for different reasons than the heads. Any particular problems with the OEM head gaskets ?
 
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