Hi guys, I haven't been on for a few months. My 90 T2 is still setting in the garage.
I do almost have the short block put back together.
The last time this engine was rebuilt we were never able to get it running properly and then a washer or such thing got sucked into the intake and well..... that was that.
This time we were super careful with the assembly. Everything is as it should be.
I have a click type torque wrench. I've used the same wrench for several years. This time when I was torquing the tension bolts to 20ft# it just didn't seem to be tight enough. I went ahead and torque the final step to 28ft# but then I thought maybe I better recheck the torque . I ran to the store and picked up a beam type torque wrench.
The new wrench shows that the tension bolts were actually only torqued to like 16 - 18 ft# instead of the 28ft#.
I can't believe how far off the first torque wrench was. Would that cause any problem with the way the engine ran from having the tension bolts not torqued to specs? Or isn't that important?
I was thinking maybe that was the problem with the last build.
ashley

 

yeah their pretty critical for them to bee correctly torqued down. Think about how a piston engine needs the head correctly torqued down. it is the same function presumably

 

Yeah, the last time I checked the calibration of my 20 year old craftsman click wrench it was about 15-20 ftlb off. I began calibrating it each time I needed to move to a new value. It's actually pretty easy to do. Say for instance you want 25ftlb. Find 25lb worth of weight, use some rope to hang the weight with. Clamp the socket head firmly in a vise, measure 12 inches from the center of the head, and hang the rope at that point. Adjust it until it barely clicks when the weight is applied.

 

I read an article a little while ago... torque wrenches will lose their cal very quickly (1-2 months) if you leave the handle in a tensioned state (for the twist handle style - they should be set to "0" when not in use).

 

I thought I just saw digital torque wrenches for sale on forum here somewhere?

 

^This... Always store the wrench set to its lowest setting.

 

Thanks for the input. I appreciate your help. I have never heard of a torque wrench being out of calibration.

 

They can absolutely lose their calibration. One of the many hats I wear in the navy is calibration, so I deal with all kinds of test gear. Torque wrenches fail calibration quite often, and we use high quality ones like snap-on (several hundred dollars each). Testing them is quite easy, but the test gear I use is VERY expensive. You can do as rotary evolution said, but do make sure you exercise the torque wrench a few times before setting the final torque.

 

I replaced the old one with a new snapon digital techwrench. I'm curious to see how long it holds it's calibration. I need to test it to see how accurate it actually is.

 

are there any torque wrenches that don't require Calibration or self calibrate? I never trusted my cheap torque wrench so its all done by feel

 

Nope, any quality measuring tool requires periodic recalibration.

 

ah I see, I would venture to say some are harder to calibrate then others.

I've got a leak on my drain bolt for my fuel tank and I'm scared to tighten it anymore, I'm wondering if I need a new washer and/or if its needs more tightening (I did tighten it slightly more and no.change)

for.the record it wasn't leaking before I drained my old gas

 

A quality tool assumes recalibration and makes it easy and accurate to do.
A cheap tool either has no provision at all or is so poorly made it can't be accurately/repeatedly calibrated.