The Ford Barn - View Single Post - Need to re-torque head, but socket is too fat

Ed in Maine · 05-21-2020, 10:33 AM

You should drain the coolant out of the engine if you are going to mess with the cylinder head nuts. Three weeks ago I broke a perfectly nice outlet casting torqueing the head down. I purchased new one from Snyders and packaged with the new outlet casting is an instruction sheet to place a paper match at the end of each ear of the casting. I also used RTV and no gasket. By placing a match at the end of the casting, you are putting the casting in compression when you are tightening the nuts. Cast iron can take a lot of abuse if the metal is in compression but breaks easily if but it is put in tension or bending. When I broke my casting, I found that the gasket was wet and got squishy and moved out from under the nut so that I was in effect bending the casting at the ends. Bad news!

You mentioned that you are new to torqueing the head. There is a tightening sequence in the maintenance manual and I have been told to torque the head with the engine cold and with no lubricant on the threads of the studs. I know I was traumatized after breaking the outlet casting but I took my time tightening the nuts. It is up to you but I do not recommend the clamp on the ignition cable. Why mess around with a cylinder head nut when all you want to do is some simple maintenance on the distributer? If you don't like the look of the stud too high out the nut, I would suggest that you get from Snyders the head nut washers (T-3003-W). I also used these washers under the nuts on the outlet casting. I tightened in steps, 15, 25, 35 and 55 ft-lbs. Some people on Ford Barn suggested that you only torque the outlet casting to 50 ft-lbs. After the first torqueing, I let the engine sit over night to bond the gasket to the block. The next day I filled the radiator with water and ran the car for about ten minutes and let it sit over night. I retorqued the next day and found that it had relaxed about 5-8 ft-lbs. I then ran the car for about twenty minutes and repeated my retorquing procedure the next day. As I said, I took my time and repeated the torqueing procedure about 10 times until I was positive that there was no change in the torque values. I now have about 200 miles on the car and everything seems normal. This is one job I just hate. I am so afraid I am going to break a stud or pull the stud out of the block. Read up on how to do this job and good luck with your project.

05-21-2020, 10:33 AM	#44
Ed in Maine Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: Washington Cty., ME or Flagler Cty., FL Posts: 1,106	Re: Need to re-torque head, but socket is too fat You should drain the coolant out of the engine if you are going to mess with the cylinder head nuts. Three weeks ago I broke a perfectly nice outlet casting torqueing the head down. I purchased new one from Snyders and packaged with the new outlet casting is an instruction sheet to place a paper match at the end of each ear of the casting. I also used RTV and no gasket. By placing a match at the end of the casting, you are putting the casting in compression when you are tightening the nuts. Cast iron can take a lot of abuse if the metal is in compression but breaks easily if but it is put in tension or bending. When I broke my casting, I found that the gasket was wet and got squishy and moved out from under the nut so that I was in effect bending the casting at the ends. Bad news! You mentioned that you are new to torqueing the head. There is a tightening sequence in the maintenance manual and I have been told to torque the head with the engine cold and with no lubricant on the threads of the studs. I know I was traumatized after breaking the outlet casting but I took my time tightening the nuts. It is up to you but I do not recommend the clamp on the ignition cable. Why mess around with a cylinder head nut when all you want to do is some simple maintenance on the distributer? If you don't like the look of the stud too high out the nut, I would suggest that you get from Snyders the head nut washers (T-3003-W). I also used these washers under the nuts on the outlet casting. I tightened in steps, 15, 25, 35 and 55 ft-lbs. Some people on Ford Barn suggested that you only torque the outlet casting to 50 ft-lbs. After the first torqueing, I let the engine sit over night to bond the gasket to the block. The next day I filled the radiator with water and ran the car for about ten minutes and let it sit over night. I retorqued the next day and found that it had relaxed about 5-8 ft-lbs. I then ran the car for about twenty minutes and repeated my retorquing procedure the next day. As I said, I took my time and repeated the torqueing procedure about 10 times until I was positive that there was no change in the torque values. I now have about 200 miles on the car and everything seems normal. This is one job I just hate. I am so afraid I am going to break a stud or pull the stud out of the block. Read up on how to do this job and good luck with your project.