Torque wrench myths

[Zed999]

Tallow for wood screws into hardwood has been traditional since screws were invented. Or beeswax - it also smells nice.

[cmaxcliff]

When I became a "professional" mechanic at an independent import repair shop in 1974 my boss was a factory trained Aston Martin mechanic. We worked on many brands of imports and I mostly worked on English cars because the other two guys hated working on them. We had a lot of Datsun customers and also did performance modifications. The boss raced a 510 in IMSA. I raced an Elva Courier with the SCCA. I had much to learn.

I was buying a lot of tools and the boss didn't trust click type torque wrenches. He claimed that only the beam type and the very expensive dial type were accurate and that the click type were not certified for aviation use. I have no clue if that is true.

When rebuilding engines I was instructed to throw away connecting rod fastener lock tabs if they had them and to use Loctite. Many years later I read somewhere that Loctite made the torque readings inaccurate.

These days I use the Carrillo secret sauce moly/oil on all connecting rod fasteners and flywheel gland nuts(why do we call a bolt a nut?, never mind). The Carrillo rods that I have been using have 1/4" bolts and I do use a stretch gauge on those, and lots of secret sauce. Once I got used to them I knew how many inch pounds they need and I only have to check the stretch before and after torquing. I don't think you want your wrench to be too far off with those.

When I torque a gland nut to 450 with a torque dude is it really 450? I won't worry about that until I have one loosen.

I watched both of the videos above and found them interesting but I don't plan on changing my habits.

[Root_Werks]

Those were good! Mostly follow all the basics from the video.

Always return to zero setting when not used
Always use center of handle grip

etc. etc.

One thing that got me was the anti-seize difference. Wow, always use a little on spark plugs and even lug bolts or nuts.

Good info for sure.
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When I set my timing, why do I flush, then take a pee?

[Heiferman]

The video came up on my feed but I did not watch since it was kind of a dumb title.

I have used all kinda torque wrenches for 40 years. But in the late 80s Army Aviation made sure we knew wtf was up. We never used lube. There was some use of thread lock but rarely. There was considerable re-use of fasteners. Everything had a spec of x to x. It was terribly important since we could not pull to the side of the road if something failed or came lose.

And if you do not get your torque wrench recalibrated every year it is worthless anyway.

That being said - torque on an auto is far less important. IMO - It is more likely that a hobbyist breaks a fastener than leaves one too loose.

Just my unsolicited opinion - man
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- 1973 Thing, some LandCruisers and an old Ambulance