Had a mobile mechanic tell me his torque wrench was 'close enough' last week

Guy was helping me swap a head gasket on a 6.0 Ford in my driveway outside Richmond and he just guessed on the head bolts. Said his Snap-on hadn't been calibrated in 5 years and it's probably fine. I went and rented a torque wrench from AutoZone and found his readings were off by 15 ft lbs. Has anyone else run into mechanics who just wing it on torque specs?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_brian8d ago

I had a buddy who worked at a shop in Jacksonville that had a torque wrench older than his truck. He called it "the guesser" and just added a grunt for extra tightness. 15 foot pounds is straight up dangerous on something like head bolts. I've seen warped decks on small engines from less than that. Your 6.0 already has enough problems without throwing bad torque into the mix. At least you caught it before you fired it up and turned that driveway into a boat ramp.

rodriguez.felix8d ago

Yeah I don't know @the_brian, feels like we're maybe blowing this one out of proportion a bit. People been wrenching with crappy tools for decades and most of those engines are still running. Is it ideal? No. But 15 pounds off on a head bolt isn't automatically sending you to the scrap yard either.