Old timer told me I was overtorquing cylinder heads and he was right

I had this old guy watch me torque down a 6.7 Powerstroke head last month and he told me I was going too far. I always went to 175 ft-lbs because that's what I read online but he showed me the actual spec is 160 wet with ARP lube. Tried his method on the next one and haven't had a single weep since. Kinda embarrassing to get schooled by someone twice my age but hey it saved me a comeback job. Anyone else get humbled by a veteran mechanic?

2 comments

2 Comments

jenny5801d ago

Takes a real solid mechanic to listen when someone school's you like that. I notice the same thing with a lot of my neighbors, they'll follow some YouTube video to fix their lawnmower or change their oil and end up making it worse because they missed the little details a pro would catch in five minutes. Those old timers got their lessons the hard way, with busted knuckles and parts that went flying across the shop, so they usually got a good reason for doing things their way. Guess it's cheaper to get a free lesson like you did than to buy your own education with warranty claims and come backs.

umabailey1d ago

You sure about that 160 wet spec with ARP lube? On a 6.7 Powerstroke the factory torque is 166 ft-lbs wet with motor oil, not 160... ARP recommends their own lube but that changes the friction factor so you gotta follow their specific torque numbers, not just swap lubes and guess. @jenny580 is right about the value of learning from old timers, but even they can mix up specs across different build years. I always double check the year and block casting now after getting burned trusting someone's memory on a 6.4 head once.

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