Valve Cover Washers and Spring washers?

[Jellybean]

Can you use a spring washer on Valve Cover Washer to prevent them vibrating loose?

 

[Glanza_Mike]

I was planning on doing this so i hope so! Already bought everything needed! i dont see why not tbh.

[Jellybean]

In short use OEM hardware , and some thread lock like loctite 243 , Spring washers are useless and in-accurate

 

Reading up on it , spring washer can create 'preload scatter' which basically means the torque wrench will break(click) sooner or later than it should in relation to the tensile stress on the bolt which its specified for due to the presence or lack of necessary friction.

 

Nasa on spring washers:

 

NASA fastener design manual has a section on them and quoted " The typical helical spring washer is made from trapezoidal wire formed into a helix of one coil so that the free height is approximately twice the thickness of the washer cross section. The lockwasher 'serves' as a spring while the bolt is being tightened. However, The washer is normally completely flat by the time the bolt is fully torqued. At This time it is equivalent to a solid flat washer, but without the structural integrity, and its locking ability is nonexistent. In summary, a lockwasher of this type is completely useless for locking."

[Dnk]

Use this type rather than a spring washer, i didn't on my car and never had the OE bolts coming undone, having

new seals really helps this though as you actually compress the seal which helps the bolt stay tight, if they're old

seals they will be hard so dont compress and the bolts work loose

Edited March 2, 2017 by Dnk (see edit history)