I've heard of people rebuilding engines and not replacing a single stretch
bolt (including head bolts, as well as the connecting rod cap bolts) and
having no problems at all.  I'd consider those people quite knowledgable too.

Funny this question was brought up.  I JUST did the exact same thing- rebuilt
a 1.6L diesel and I reused the flywheel bolts w/ loc-tite.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do...  Probably just leave it.

Brad

> I've had the flywheel/pp off in my Jetta twice now, and never replaced the
> bolts. The first time I didn't use loctite, although I think I did the 2nd
> time around. No problems so far after 450k km. Just lucky I guess...
>
> ps: I see now that the Jetta Bentleys does say the bolts should be
> replaced as they appear to be stretch type (torque= 1/4 turn). The diesel
> section of the Vanagon Bentley says to replace them, but only lists a
> single torque of 54 ft.lb., with no 1/4 turn following. Perhaps the Vanagon
> diesel does not use stretch bolts...?
>
> I'd say if you used Loctite, you're probably ok, but I'm sure others have
> more to go on than my two instances...
>
> Shawn Wright
> http://zuiko.sls.bc.ca/~swright
> '85 Jetta TD
> '88 Westy 2.1L