Journeyman told me I was chasing torque specs instead of listening to the engine

Had a talk with a 30 year veteran last Thursday, guy named Roy who runs a fleet yard in Tulsa. He watched me torque a head bolt to spec for the third time on the same 6.7 and said I was wasting time, that the real gauge was in the sound and feel of the pull. At first I thought he was full of it, old school nonsense, but then he had me run the same bolt with a breaker bar and listen for the creak before the click. Now I'm torn between trusting the numbers on my torque wrench or trusting my hands when they tell me something's off. Anyone else ever gotten advice that fights against every chart and manual you learned from? How do you decide when the old timer is right and when he's just stuck in 1985?

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1 Comment

karen_hart15d ago

Trust the click but feel the pull too, just use both when they disagree something's off.