On the older Fiats, there was a requirement to re-torque the cylinder head.
This was done as part of the 1st service and was supposed to be carried out at 600 - 1000 miles from new. Iirc, this was done free-of-charge except for the cost of the engine oil used. It used to be said that a cheaper? (with less additives) engine oil was used from new to aid the bedding-in process and wasn't suitable for use beyond the running-in period.The valve clearances on OHV (pushrod) engines would, of course, have to be re-adjusted after the head was re-torqued (usually backed off slightly). Where I worked, it was normal practice to also check/re-adjust the points gap, re-adjust the ignition timing if needed, re-adjust the idle speed/mixture and reset the air-cleaner intake position for the coming season (if adjustable).
I often wondered if owners of cars which blew head gaskets at circa 30,000 miles had perhaps skipped their 1st service and therefore not have had their cyl. heads re-torqued.... Anytime I took over the maintenance of secondhand cars for family members, I usually re-torqued the cylinder heads the 1st time I worked on them, never had a gasket blow or weep oil.... I was sometimes surprised at how little effort it took to initially loosen the head bolts (and therefore they were likely not exerting much clamping force) before re-torqueing, maybe these were engines that 'missed' their 1st service.
In the 'good old days' all cylinder head gaskets needed to be re-torqued after a few hundred miles but this re-tightening requirement was abolished with the introduction of torque-to-yield (aka stretch) cyl. head bolts.
With modern type gasket materials it might? no longer be necessary to re-torque, but I'd still do it unless the gasket manufacturer/supplier specifically says not to re-torque.
P.S. When re-torqueing a cylinder head, do it one nut/bolt at a time - if you loosen all the nuts/bolts at the same time (as some untrained people do...) you'll likely end up with an oil leak/weep from the cyl. head joint. (this is not aimed at the OP, just mentioning it for the possible benefit of newbies to working on cars
).
AL.
