Tried using a harbor freight torque wrench on a head gasket job back in March

I had this 2004 Chevy Tahoe with a blown head gasket and figured I'd save some cash with the $30 torque wrench from Harbor Freight. Got it all torqued down to spec, felt good about it, then started it up and heard a tick almost right away. Pulled the head back off and found two bolts were about 15 ft-lbs under, which explains why the gasket was already leaking in one spot. Idk if it's just that specific wrench or what, but I dropped the extra $120 on a Snap-On one after that. Has anyone else had bad luck with cheap torque tools messing up a big job like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

eva24320d agoProlific Poster

You mentioned the Snap-On one cost $120, which is what I always wondered about - like, is that actually the sweet spot where torque wrenches stop being garbage? I had almost the same thing happen with a Pittsburgh Pro click-type from Harbor Freight on a water pump job on my old Ford. Clicked at 18 ft-lbs but when I checked it with a beam style later it was actually clicking at like 22. The issue with those cheap clickers is the internals are just stamped metal and springs, and the calibration drifts real fast. Did you ever check the Harbor Freight one against anything to see how far off it actually was?

ryan_kim6320d ago

@eva243 yeah you're right that the Pittsburgh Pro ones are exactly the ones that gave me trouble too. But I gotta say, I think the sweet spot is actually around the $80-$100 range, not $120. That Snap-On one I bought was overkill for what I do, but I was just mad at the time lol. The real problem with those cheap ones isn't just the calibration drift - it's that the mechanism itself feels gritty and inconsistent, so even if you set it right it might click early or late depending on how you hold it. I did check the Harbor Freight one against a beam style later and it was off by about 10 ft-lbs at the 80 ft-lbs setting, which is basically useless for anything important.