Buddy told me to go with a cheaper torque wrench for my engine rebuild

My friend Mark swore his $40 Harbor Freight torque wrench was fine for my 302 Ford rebuild. I used it to torque the main caps and when I double checked with a borrowed Snap-on, everything was off by 8 to 12 ft-lbs. I ended up pulling the crank back out and retorquing every bearing. Anyone else have a cheap tool almost toast a project?

3 comments

3 Comments

davis.olivia4d ago

Yeah @the_oliver I gotta disagree hard here. Harbor Freight tools are a total dice roll and you're lucky yours works. I've seen three different Pittsburgh torque wrenches that were garbage out of the box. One was 10 pounds off brand new. That's not user error that's just a bad tool. For an engine rebuild you need consistency not gambling. I'd rather spend the money once than pull a crank back out.

bailey.jennifer5d ago

Tbh that Harbor Freight stuff is such a gamble. I had one of their torque wrenches that felt fine until I borrowed a friends Matco and realized I'd been under-torquing everything by like 15 ft-lbs for months. Almost ruined a head gasket job on my old Chevy.

the_oliver5d ago

Man I gotta push back on this one. Harbor Freight torque wrenches are fine for most stuff if you actually know what you're doing. The problem is people grab a Pittsburgh Pro for $20 and expect it to be as accurate as a $400 Snap-on without ever checking it. I've been using the same HF clicker for years and I test it every few months with a beam style wrench. Never been off by more than 3 lbs. Your under torquing problem was probably a user error thing more than the tool itself.