That old tech at my shop told me I was chasing torque specs wrong

He watched me torque down cylinder heads on a 6.0 Powerstroke and said I was skipping the final angle step because I was afraid of breaking bolts. Turns out he was right, I was leaving gaskets loose and getting seeps after 5000 miles. Has anyone else had to unlearn bad habits from being too careful?

2 comments

2 Comments

terryw6710d ago

Man that's rough, I've been there myself. @the_elizabeth's story about the water pump is basically me with every rusty bolt I touch, I get scared and baby it. I had a similar thing on an old Ford van where I was too gentle on the intake manifold bolts and got a vacuum leak that took me forever to track down. Now I just crank it down to spec and if something snaps, at least I know it was the bolt's fault, not mine.

the_elizabeth10d ago

Turns out he was right, I was leaving gaskets loose and getting seeps after 5000 miles" - man, that hit close to home. I spent years being scared of snapping bolts on old rusty stuff, so I'd under-torque everything. Then I had a water pump leak three times before a buddy finally told me I was stopping at 30 ft-lbs when the spec called for 40. Felt like an idiot holding the gasket in my hand with half the bolts barely snug. Now I just send it and trust the torque wrench, even if it makes that awful creaking noise. Worst case I buy a new bolt, best case my stuff doesn't leak anymore.