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So I did the head cylinder retorque last night and everything went pretty well - still haven't started her up because I'm gonna change out the heater core hoses and change the oil first.
As others have experienced, the last 90 degrees on each bolt is pretty rough - it felt like I was gonna shear the bolt off or strip the thread. What made it worse is that I had to start over a quarter of the way through because my socket extension broke due to the strain I was putting on it! Note to self, get better tools...
I cleaned the valve cover mating surfaces really good, beaded a thin line of black rtv sealant on it, put a new valve cover gasket on, and torqued the valve cover down to the specified torque.
While I was at it, I replaced the thermostat housing seal and upper idler pulley. The thermostat housing seal looked like it was on its way out - black residue would come off when I rubbed the gasket with my finger - not good. Good thing I checked the serpentine belt because it looks like it skipped out a little bit so it wasn't completely in alignment. Replacing the heater hoses looks pretty simple - they're pretty easy to access from beneath the car.
So my worry is that I didn't do the head torque correctly - I followed the instructions down to the letter, but I have this nagging feeling I did something wrong. My concerns - I used the cheaper style torque wrench with the little bar and half circle torque measure, and I eyeballed the last 90 degrees instead of using some sort of measurement... also I'm still a little freaked out with the amount of torque I put on those bolts. I'm used to working on motorcycle engines that require a lot less torque.
Thanks,
Sung
posted by 207.46.238...
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