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Just realized I've been torquing head bolts wrong for 10 years
Working on a 6.0 Powerstroke last Thursday and had an old timer walk by my bay. He watched me for a minute then asked why I was using a torque wrench with no angle gauge. I told him I just go by the ft lbs. He laughed and showed me the FSM I had sitting right there on the bench. Turns out I been skipping the final angle step on damn near every engine rebuild I've done. Never had one blow but still makes me wonder how many of them are walking around with loose heads right now. Anyone else find out they been doing some basic step wrong for way too long?
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kelly_rivera14h ago
Wait, so you're telling me you've been building engines without the final angle torque and they've held together? That's either really lucky or you've got the touch of a surgeon with that torque wrench. I'd be sweating bullets wondering which one of those motors is gonna spit a head gasket at the worst possible moment. A buddy of mine did the same thing with ARP head studs on a Cummins, used the wrong torque sequence for years, and somehow the thing still runs like a top. Makes you wonder how much of this stuff is actually necessary vs just engineers covering their butts on paper.
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charlieh7410h agoMost Upvoted
My ARP studs on a 12-valve never got torqued right and it's fine, @kelly_rivera.
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