patriciap52•24d agoProlific Poster

Took me 11 years to realize I was torquing head bolts in the wrong order

Been doing diesel work since 2013, mostly on old Cummins and Powerstroke stuff. Last month I had a 5.9 that kept blowing head gaskets no matter what I did. Replaced gaskets twice, checked the deck, checked the heads. My buddy Dave who used to work at a machine shop in Tulsa walked by, watched me for like 30 seconds, and said "bro, you're going from the middle out instead of the outside in." I swear I've been doing it backwards my whole career. Felt like a complete idiot. Has anyone else had those moments where some tiny thing you learned wrong way back just stuck and messed you up for years? What finally tipped you off?

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the_nina24d agoMost Upvoted

Dave had the same thing with a Ford 6.0, torqued head studs wrong for years until his neighbor pointed out he was chasing the wrong pattern in the manual. He said the worst part was his own cracked block was sitting right there in the shop the whole time.