Overheard a shop foreman say something that made my blood run cold

I was grabbing parts at the counter yesterday and heard the foreman from the shop next door tell his apprentice "just run that rod up to 80 ft-lbs, it'll hold for now." That was for a head bolt on a 2018 Cummins ISX. I didn't say anything but I walked away thinking about how many engines get ruined by shortcuts like that. Has anyone else caught someone doing dangerous torque specs and not known what to say?

3 comments

3 Comments

keith27411d ago

People just dont care anymore honestly. Its not just this one guy with a torque wrench either, you see it everywhere. Same kind of shortcut thinking like when someone slaps a new set of tires on a car but ignores the alignment thinking itll be fine for now. That rod bolt at 80 ft-lbs might hold for a little bit but the clamping force is wrong and youve already introduced a stress riser in the threads. Eventually something gives and the whole motor comes apart at highway speed. Its like people forgot that doing the job right the first time saves you a whole lot of headaches and money down the road.

morgan.jason11d ago

Oh boy. You might want to double check that year, the ISX didn't come in a 2018 model, that's when they switched to the X15. Still a bad call on the torque though, shortcuts like that are why engines fail at 300k miles.

paige16611d ago

Wait, so are people actually swapping in older torque specs to hit a number without even checking if the hardware can take it? Because that sounds like a recipe for a rod going through the block around 250k, no?