Shoutout to the guy who called my torque wrench method lazy

I was doing head gaskets on a 6.7 Powerstroke last month, and I was torquing the bolts in the factory sequence but just going straight to the final spec in one pull. This old timer at the shop, Frank, watched me for a minute and said, 'You know, you're just asking for a warp doing it that way. It's lazy.' He told me to try the three-step method he learned on Cat engines: first pass at 30 foot-pounds, second at 60, final at the spec. I argued it took too long, but he was right. I tried it on the next job, a Duramax, and the feel was totally different. You can actually hear the stretch better, and the final reading is way more consistent. I've been doing it his way ever since. How many of you still do the single-stage torque on heads, or is everyone stepping it up now?

2 comments

2 Comments

leep891mo ago

You saying "you can actually hear the stretch" is what got me. I used to think it was a waste of time too.

schmidt.grace1mo ago

Right, who knew my weird body sounds would be convincing?