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Had a chat with an old diesel mechanic about torque specs and it blew my mind
Guy told me he never uses a torque wrench on head bolts because he learned on 1970s Cummins engines where you just feel it, and after he rebuilt a 6BT in 4 hours with no leaks I started wondering how much of modern spec stuff is actually necessary.
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elliotr3926d ago
Yeah I read something about how some old Cummins guys could torque by feel within 5 ft-lbs of spec. The tolerance on those old bolts was just way bigger than what you get now.
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ryan71926d ago
My uncle was the same way on his old Detroit Diesels. He could set head bolts by feel and those engines would run for years without a single issue. It makes you wonder if we overthink things with all these torque to yield bolts and multi stage tightening sequences. There's something to be said for mechanics who learned when engines were simpler and you had to understand the metal, not just follow a book. I'm not saying throw away your torque wrench, but maybe we put too much faith in numbers sometimes.
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