Ross Nicol
GT40s Supporter
I've built or rebuilt a few 302 Ford Windsor engines now (blown up the odd one or two) and being a stickler for doing things by the book, I adhere to torque wrench specifications almost exclusively. Ok so bearing caps, rod bolts and head studs etc I will always tighten using a high quality Torque wrench and spec from a trusted source. The source I use is 'How to build small block Ford engines' by Tom Monroe. Now using this procedure has been ok with one major exception -The inlet manifold, Monroe describes a 2 step procedure and sequence for torquing these bolts 1/ 15 to 17 ftlb 2/ 23 to 25 ftlb Now the first time I tried to use these settings I was fitting my DC&O 8 barrel (stack) inlet manifold to a 302 fitted with Ford Racing alloy heads. Got down to 15 to 17 ftlb step ok but stripped a thread in one of the heads as I tried to go to 23 to 25 ftlb. Had to fit a heli coil to repair the head. Now since that day I have reverted to Ross' feel spec which means going through the sequence a lot of times, tightening in small increments, until Ross feels it is enough. Has worked brilliantly and I've not had any leaks or problems. Fast forward to the latest 302 I bought as a complete engine then realized an inlet manifold change was required. This engine has the original steel heads and my natural instinct told me I should be able to use the Monroe spec on the inlet manifold bolts. Wrong!!!! again I could feel one of the bolts begin to strip. Now my senses were telling me the tension was a bit high and unnecessarily so, but you press on thinking how could the guy have got it so wrong. Well from now on I'll trust my senses on these manifold bolts. I firmly believe now Monroe would have to be referring to steel heads only with this torque spec, and that 15 to 17 ftlb would be plenty enough for them. Ross