Harbor Freight torque wrench Fail.

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vtecboy

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Hello,

I have a 2000 mitsubishi eclipse with the 3.0L v6 engine. I had a small leak on the valve cover of the rear head (you have to take out the intake manifold in order to access to the rear head. It is a real pain in the a s s to remove the intake manifold in this car. I spend 5 hours doing this job.
I bought a cheap HF torque wrench for this job,i'm supposed to apply 35 INCH pounds of torque to the bolts of the valve cover. And im pretty sure the torque wrench overtighted the bolts.
When i was "done" i started the engine. 3 minutes later the back of the engine was smoking very bad. And there was a good deal of oil in the floor.
So im very [censored] because tomorrow im redoing all this job. My back hurts, i have a headache that wont go away. I can't believe this sh**t.
I have a question:

Do you guys think the valve cover gasket that i just installed is damaged?.... I don't have money to spend money on a new gasket again.

Here's a picture of the mess.

cimg4262n.jpg
 
And what does the torque wrench have to do with this? Anyway there can be other reasons why it leaked.
 
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Buy high quality tools, especially torque wrenches. Take that Harbor Freight torque wrench and return it immediately. Nobody wants to do a job twice.
 
Your sure you didnt tighten to 35ft-lbs? The HF torque wrenches arent terrible, the have a 4% error. So keeping that in mind, i would have set the wrench to 33in-lbs.

Where did you get 35in-lbs from?

EDIT: Did some searching, i found 31in-lbs. So i woulda set the wrench at 29in-lbs.
 
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yea 3ft-lb is really low.

I had the same problem.

now i just use common sense when tightening to that amount.
 
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Originally Posted By: tig1
And what does the torque wrench have to do with this?


I'm guessing that it overtightened and caused the gasket to squeeze out, thus causing the leak.

35 in-lbs seems pretty darn low. That's probably looser than finger tight for me.
 
Originally Posted By: The Critic
Originally Posted By: tig1
And what does the torque wrench have to do with this?


I'm guessing that it overtightened and caused the gasket to squeeze out, thus causing the leak.

35 in-lbs seems pretty darn low. That's probably looser than finger tight for me.


No, you can't tighten with your fingers 35 in. lbs. Was an in. lb torque wrench used. I have both the inch and foot lb. wrench and both are fine. Also it depends how you hold the wrench as to the amount of torque the wrench will break at.
 
-Which torque wrench did you get? Did you get one where 35 in-lbs is in its usable torque range?

-What makes you think it was overtightened?

There's no evidence that the torque wrench did anything wrong or isn't accurate. It could have a problem, but at this point there's no evidence.

The HF torque wrenches actually aren't too bad. The same wrench is sold under multiple brands. I have a 1/2" that I've used for a few years. It still checks out as pretty accurate. It's not as nice as my Armstrong or CDI torque wrenches, but it works fine.
 
Yes,the torque wrench overtighten the bolts... I was like "holly sh**t this to much torque for being only 35 inch pounds" ...But i decided to "trust" my new torque wrench...And yes... The gasket is squeezed and the valve cover is a little dented. I hope i can just retight the bolts and fix the leak without getting a new gasket..

The worst part is the hurt in my back...this car is lowered. I was in a bad position for like 5 hours...And tomorrow im doing everything again.
 
Originally Posted By: vtecboy
Yes,the torque wrench overtighten the bolts... I was like "holly sh**t this to much torque for being only 35 inch pounds" ...But i decided to "trust" my new torque wrench...And yes... The gasket is squeezed and the valve cover is a little dented. I hope i can just retight the bolts and fix the leak without getting a new gasket..

The worst part is the hurt in my back...this car is lowered. I was in a bad position for like 5 hours...And tomorrow im doing everything again.


Again, which torque wrench did you get? What drive size is it? How did you know when it had reached the specified torque?

I'm not trying to be rude, but do you know how to use this type of torque wrench? Many of them don't click very loud, especially at low torque specs. They just sort of "give."
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Doesn't that gasket sit in a groove? I'm guessing that it fell out as you put the cover on.


I was thinking that too. Smear a thin amount of RTV on it to hold it in place.
 
The valve cover bolts on my Fords torque at 89 in lbs. 35 seems strange to me. That's only 3.5 ft lbs.
 
Sorry to hear of your problems. We've all "been there-done that" in some way or another. Even the pros have catastrophies every now and then.

- I have learned to always test a torque wrench before putting on the final fastener, especially small, delicate ones. Test it on a bolt in a vice to make sure it clicks where you think it should. This is akin to the instructions that recommend "exercising" a torque wrench before use to distribute the lube.

- In my experience, torqueing covers with gaskets can be a bit tricky. I.E., a tranny pan gasket will torque down to the required 10 ft. lbs., then if you go over it again, the bolts will start turning at 8 lbs. and tighten again.....and again....

I learned this with a Snap on digital tech wrench. I think the gasket compresses, then relaxes. Even with a torque wrench, you can over squeeze the gasket and ruin it. Just my experience.

- 35 inch lbs. seems incredibly low. Most covers are in the 10 FT.LB. range +/-.

Best of luck. Felpro gaskets are excellent.
 
I'm assuming this is the torque wrench you bought, the 1/4" drive version?
http://www.harborfreight.com/1-4-quarter-inch-drive-click-type-torque-wrench-2696.html

I'm going to go deep into tool nerdiness here, so bear with me:

Most torque wrenches are only rated as accurate from 20 - 100% of full scale. For example, a wrench that maxes out at 100 ft-lbs would only be accurate from 20 - 100 ft-lbs.

Now, many torque wrenches include numbers on the handle below the 20% mark. Many people just don't know that the torque wrench probably isn't considered accurate at those low settings.

If you bought the torque wrench linked above, it maxes out at 200 in-lbs. In that case, it would only be considered accurate from 40-200 in-lbs. Even though the scale on the wrench goes down to 20 in-lbs. Now, the HF manual doesn't make this clear, but I would guess the 20% rule probably applies to the HF torque wrenches as well.

To do 35 in-lbs, you need a really small torque wrench. I have a tiny one that goes up to 120 in-lbs, which would be appropriate to use in this scenario.

Again, the torque wrench could have malfunctioned or otherwise had a problem, but I think we still need a little more info.
 
Yesss..The torque wrench did not click LOUD...but i can feel when it was at the supposed torque.

This is the smaller torque wrench HF had today.
I'm going to return this torque wrench and get another one.
 
I have the same one as yours. Again, bench test it with a vise and make sure it breaks at the desired torque you need. Again 35 seems way low to me.
 
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