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A guy at the Freightliner dealer told me I was over-torquing my valve cover bolts
He said 'you're crushing the gasket, just snug them.' I started using a torque wrench set to 18 ft-lbs like he said and my leaks stopped. Anyone else get a simple tip that fixed a dumb problem?
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jesse_barnes378d ago
My old Ford's valve covers leaked for two years. I was convinced I needed fancy gaskets, so I kept buying them and cranking the bolts down harder each time. Turns out I was just using a cheap 3/8" drive ratchet like a gorilla. The spec was only 8 foot pounds, which feels like nothing. I felt pretty dumb when I finally looked it up.
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val_henderson8d ago
Ever wonder if torque specs are low on purpose to stop us from breaking old, brittle parts? That 8 ft-lbs feels wrong because we're used to forcing things, but maybe it's the only thing keeping those old bolt threads intact.
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