Camshaft Cap Bolts

[IceMan502]

I’m in the process of finishing replacing the head gasket on my 2009 Mazda3 so I’m starting my torquing of the Camshaft bolts but my problem is this...When I started to torque my first cap torqued just fine just fine. But I cannot get a click from my torque wrench out of the rest. I've already replaced the torque wrench thinking it might be that but it's doing the same thing.

Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[negusm]

These aren't Torque to yield bolts, are they?

 

[IceMan502]

No they're not T/Y bolts ... I'm not real knowledgeable of having to torque ... so what I was informed of yesterday is that I'm using the wrong torque wrench. I've been using my bigger torque wrench which is foot pounds in newton meters. I needed a torque wrench which is inch pounds and newton meters.... is that necessarily correct?

 

[negusm]

I'm surprised you didn't snap the bolt heads off.

You may have torqued things 12 times their required torque. Yes, you need to make sure what Torque spec it is and if it's inches or feet.

You need to remove the bolts you over torqued and replace them with new ones.

 

[markjenn]

Most torque wrenches have dual scales to read in either metric or english units, but if yours doesn’t, simply get out a calculator and convert the spec to whatever units your wrench uses.

As to whether you need an inch-lb wrench or a ft-lb wrench, it depends on whether the wrench covers the torque you need. Most car repairs need a light-duty inch-lb wrench for smaller bolts and a medium-duty ft-lb wrench for larger bolts. If you want to torque stuff like truck lug nuts, you may even need a third large wrench. But if yours covers the torque you need, it will be fine....just make sure you convert the spec to what the wrench uses. The conversion factors are simple and widely published and the in-lb to ft-lb spec is simple as you’d expect: 1 ft-lb = 12 in-lb.

- Mark

 

[IceMan502]

I'm surprised you didn't snap the bolt heads off.

You may have torqued things 12 times their required torque. Yes, you need to make sure what Torque spec it is and if it's inches or feet.

You need to remove the bolts you over torqued and replace them with new ones.

I actually did snap two heads off fortunately they were above the plane of the block so I was able to get them out. I learned that lesson so thank you very much.