I need a second opinion. I did a top end job on my 85 ATC250R a while back now. I was not satisfied with the way the head seated on the cylinder. I did buy a spare cylinder and head, and had the cylinder bored for the new piston. Anyway, I torqued the head according to the manual. I started it up and it had a slight coolant leak. I did get it to stop leaking, but I went quite a bit beyond the torque specs. Neither the cylinder nor head are warped. And yes, I did use a new head gasket. My question is, is it common for the cylinder studs to stretch? It recently developed another minor leak, so I ordered new studs and nuts, and a top end gasket set. Is there anything else I haven't considered?

 

One of the studs could be pulling out.

 

I finished putting everything back together and all is well. No leaks and torqued the head to spec. I compared the old studs with the new ones, and I could tell no difference. They did not appear to be stretched. Since everything else checked out, I am suspecting it was a bad head gasket from the start. Don't know if gasket quality is that different, but I did go with oem this time.