Leaky valve cover gasket

[my_beautious_ZX3]

Originally Posted by tmittelstaedt

Only someone taking an amateur approach to wrenching would not own both torque wrenches...Absolutely, the danger is overtightening. Use of the correct torque wrench will prevent that

amateur?? danger??!

lol, if a man needs an instrument to tell him when a valve cover is sufficiently tightened, then maybe he should consider a less demanding pursuit, like gardening or Scrabble.

[sailor]

Scrabble??? (Chuckles...)

To put a different note on this, I'd mention that it can be "fun" to do precision work - even if not absolutely necessary it can feel good to get things just right....

And developing the "feel" to get it close without precision tools generally only comes after quite a few broken pieces & jobs that don't work out too well...

Love the "Beam Type" torque wrenches for this reason, they help develop "feel" & show what's happening as things tighten up - something you don't get from the "click type" ones. PLUS click type torque wrenches are supposed to be calibrated on occasion, something that's seldom done....

Cheers!

[tmittelstaedt]

I didn't buy the inch pound wrench to tighten plastic valve covers down, I bought it way before Ford ever started putting plastic valve covers on Zetec's.

And yes, absolutely, if your going to take an amateur approach to this, you will refuse to buy a tool costing less than $20 that in some jobs is really a requirement.

The point was that you should have this in your toolbox already. And if your going to own it, and not use it when you have a job like this that is so obviously suited for it, then are you trying to prove something or what?

[tmittelstaedt]

Krist0ina,

Your car has a different engine, probably best to start a new thread - also your pictures aren't showing.

[makuloco2000]

Found a great video on youtube, pretty detailed. Made me allot more confident when I did mine. Just an FYI.
http://youtu.be/yfgXTSISBVE

[amc49]

' I disagree strongly with the hand-tight advice here. Absolutely, the danger is overtightening.'

Your call. I can tell a smart enough person that won't have problems.

My point is that when they design a part that clearly is meant to hit solid you don't really need the wrench if competent. If the part compressed to some arbitrary number that had to be held close then you wouldn't see wasted engineering to make a solid hit there,and the bolts would be ordinary parts. The bolts are flat shouldered, that is your clearcut indicator of when to stop tightening. Another is how easy the bolts twist in two, they are simply made to hit and stop and are not normal hardened bolts at all. Cheaper to make, the install at factory will be cheaper too, they can continue running cars down the line even if the worker's torque tool fails. Stopping that assembly line is super expensive.

Earlier Ford stuff used steel distance setting rings that you had to pull and reuse, if not you had no idea of a stopping point and generally overtorqued the gasket to leak badly even without hitting the number yet, you had to hit solid on the ring to get that number or with no ring the gasket compressed into squished out pieces first.

I grew up on '60s cheap aluminum casted motorcycles, if you didn't learn to feel bolt stretch or thread give fast you didn't ride much at all. Been so long since I stripped out a bolt I can't remember doing it. I don't torque anything except head, mains, rods, flywheel, maybe one or two other parts, I can pretty much tell by looking whether part really needs it. Much of that also on high output drag engines. Of course I forget others do not have that experience, my bad.

I've seen some factory torques that are out to lunch, if you go to them you will quickly tear up your stuff, had this trouble with Honda before, the number given was too high and 4 of 10 times you pulled threads before hitting it. They DO make mistakes.

I've got 3 inch pound beam wrenches, I do not like click wrenches at all. I use them when I feel the need but not with every chance that pops up. Of course I ALWAYS use one when setting bearing preload/rollover torques...........

Old school and new school, amen, brother.

[Lecky]

Sorry only just got back to you guys.

Thank you for all your info its helped me out alot. Feel alot more confident doing the job myself now and will keep you guys posted.

Cheers lads