oscarc53•16d agoMost Upvoted

I was torquing head bolts wrong for a decade until a CAT tech set me straight

I was rebuilding a 6.7 Powerstroke in my home shop last month and the head gasket blew after 500 miles. A friend brought over a CAT field service guy who watched me do the final torque sequence. He said, 'You're not letting the stretch bolts relax between stages, are you?' I had been going straight from the first angle to the second without the 15 minute wait. Has anyone else had a torque spec detail bite them like that?

4 comments

4 Comments

charles44216d ago

Try reading the torque spec footnotes next time.

victorhill16d ago

Well, that footnote cost me a whole Saturday once.

christopherwilson14d ago

My 2005 Civic's service manual had a footnote about the alternator bracket that was three pages long. It turned a simple belt change into a full engine bay archaeology project. Sometimes those notes are there because the engineer who wrote them got way too into the weeds. I've learned to check the footnote first, but it still feels like a trap.

hayden14414d ago

Remember the old Haynes manuals? Their "simple" steps always hid a bolt that needed three hands to reach...