That moment I realized I was over-tightening head gaskets for 15 years

I was swapping a gasket on a Ford 300 inline six at my buddy's shop in Tulsa when an old machinist walked over and asked why I was torquing to factory spec. He showed me how the block threads had stretched over time and I needed to back off 10 pounds. How do you know when to trust the manual versus the actual metal?

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sagey692mo ago

Fifteen years? Man, that's a gut punch.

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ray_webb62mo ago

@Ray_Webb6 I had the same wakeup call on an old Chevy 350, started checking thread condition first and backing off like you said. @sagey69 that gut punch feeling is real but it's the kind of lesson you only learn once.

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