Used to torque every head bolt by hand till my arm gave out, now I just use a torque wrench on a 1/2 impact for the rough pass

About 2 years ago I was doing a Cummins ISX head gasket in a Freightliner and my arm just cramped up halfway through the torque sequence. Took me an extra 45 minutes fighting that thing. My buddy Mike saw me and laughed, said why dont you just zip em down with the impact to 90 ft-lbs then finish with the wrench. Tried it on the next job and it cut my time in half, no issues with the stretch either. Anyone else do this or am I asking for trouble on the final torque check?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_barbara9d ago

Buddy Mike stripped a block doing that on a 6.7 Powerstroke.

sagelane8d ago

@the_barbara oh man, I watched a guy at my old shop do literally the same thing on his 6.7. Pulled the head bolts wrong and cracked the block right down the side. Had to scrap the whole long block, what a mess.