Spent $80 on a cheap torque wrench from Harbor Freight and it ruined a head gasket job

I figured I'd save some cash and grabbed one of their Pittsburgh Pro wrenches for an 18-bolt Cummins head job I had last month. Set it to 90 ft-lbs like the book says, clicked three times on each bolt, felt fine. Got the truck fired up and within 20 miles it was pushing coolant out the overflow. Pulled the head back off and found two bolts that were barely at 70 ft-lbs and one that was way over. Had to buy a new gasket and spend another 6 hours redoing it. Lesson learned, I just dropped $200 on a Snap-on digital torque wrench that I'll probably never touch again but at least it won't blow my work up. Anyone else get burned by cheap torque tools?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_sam24d agoMost Upvoted

Bought a $40 Husky click type last year and it didn't click until 85 on a 65 ft-lb callout.

willowc6024d ago

Wait, it didn't click until 20 over the target?