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Old timer told me to use gear oil on cylinder heads, almost cost me an engine
Had a retired mechanic named Frank at the shop in Pittsburgh tell me to slather gear oil on cylinder head bolts for better torque. I figured he'd been doing it 40 years so he must know his stuff. Put a 6.0 Powerstroke together that way and two weeks later the head gasket blew out on a delivery truck. Turns out gear oil can hydro-lock the threads and mess with your torque readings. Frank meant well but I lost 12 hours of work and 200 bucks in gaskets. Any of you guys had bad advice from someone you trusted?
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margaret_gonzalez2516d ago
Read on another forum where a guy used anti-seize on head bolts and got similar results. Threads need clean dry torque specs, not extra lube. Sucks you had to learn the hard way too.
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emmaallen16d ago
Yeah pretty much every shop manual I've seen says dry threads for head bolts unless it specifically says otherwise. A buddy of mine learned this the hard way on a small block Chevy when he torqued them with assembly lube and ended up pulling threads out of the block. Even a little bit of grease can throw your torque readings way off cause the friction changes so much.
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