Hughes kit calls for a 3 step incremental for the plenum starting at 24 in-lbs then 48in-lbs then 84in-lbs. The smallest wrench I can find starts at 120in-lbs. If I order one it's $70+ and at least a 3 day wait.
I have found a 5-80 ft-lbs wrench locally for $35. Can anyone give me a reason not to hand tighten plus a 1/4 turn for the first step, then 5 ft-lbs (60 inch lbs) for the 2nd, then finish at 7ft-lbs (84 in-lbs) to finish up.

Not just trying to be cheap, I want to get the truck out of the garage and on the road. I guess the question is any major problems with guessing at the first torque, overshooting the seconfd by 12 in-lbs and finishing up at the right torque?

Seems trivial but I don't want to screw this up. I appreciate your thoughts.

 

I can't imagine it would make that much of a difference, that's the way i would do it if i didn't have access to an in. lb. torque wrench.

 

it's not that important, just keep tightening in equal increments til you reach the final torque specs...the lead up values are not vital

 

Do it right. Get a torque wrench. Don't just try to guess it. It will end up not being torqued right in some places. You don't want to do it again.

 

I never torque crap down to specs, it might come back to bite me one day but it hasn't yet. I tightened my plenum bolts to way more then 84 inch lbs.

Just make sure you follow the bolt tightening pattern right so it goes down evenly.

 

should i explain the idea of preloading bolts? na.. i don't want to take the time. it basically just stretches the material you're bolting into and stretches the bolt to create a stronger clamp. if you just leave the bolts in there loose it won't hold it down and the bolts will take all of the stresses involved and will probably shear off and break and make you have to do it all over again. so by torquing down the bolts you transfer some of the forces on the bolts to the material and then put less stress on the bolts and then they won't shear off and break. kinda funny by plasticly deforming the bolts you actually make a stronger connection to the engine.

it really doesn't matter on the first two steps you can just hand tighten them down. just do so in an even manner as to not warp anything. it also just keeps the bolts from having to stretch all at once. but you can just torque them down to their final specs after doing it by hand. just do it in the right order so you don't wreck the material and have to redo it over again. don't want to have to do that.

 

You can always use a 'fisherman's scale' with any wrench to set a torque.

Hook the fisherman's scale onto the wrench and pull at a right angle.
If you hook onto the wrench 10 inches from the center of the bolt head and pull on the scale handle until it reads 1 lb...you have applied 10 inch pounds of torque. If you pull 6 lbs you have applied 60 inch-pounds, etc.

Same thing is true if you have to torque massive bolts to 500 foot-lbs and don't have a torque wrench that size. Make a 'cheater pipe' for the wrench you have that will extend the length of the handle..say... 10 foot long. Use a fisherman's scale pull 50 lbs at right angles to the ten foot long handle and you have torqued to 500 ft-lbs when the 'springiness' of the handle has come to a stop.

Need to have an exact one pound to check your cheap scale?
200 dimes = exactly one pound
80 quarters = also exactly one pound

Need an exact kilogram?
200 nickels = one kilogram
400 pennies = one kilogram

Now if the US Treasury would only make dollar bills exactly 6 inches long instead of 6 inches and 1/16th....or if the printing on the bills had a scale at the top and bottom....

 

Hmmmm ... learn something new every day ... I thought U.S. paper currency WAS 6" in length. That's how we measured how far down our sleeves to put the stripes in the Air Force.