Valve Covers - how tight?

[jbh]

I just adjusted my valves tonight on my 99 RT1100 but I could not find anywhere in my clymers manual about what to torque the 4 bolts to on the valve covers. It just said make sure they are tightened securely. I tightened them to 25 NM which seems fairly tight to me but it is hard to tell with the rubber washers and the rubber gasket involved. Does any one know if there are any torque specifications?

[russell_bynum]

I seem to remember 8nm for both the valve locknuts and the valve cover bolts. Basically, I just carefully run them down until they're snug. 25nm is way too high.

[FlyingFinn]

8Nm.

 

Dang, one must be fast around here!

[Stan Walker]

I tightened them to 25 NM which seems fairly tight to m

 

8 NM, just tight enough for the shoulder to touch down after compressing the gasket. You are actually living on borrowed torque....... It's only been a day or two since the topic of stripped valve cover bolts was discussed here, and how to repair them.

 

I would re-torque to 8 NM ASAP.

 

------------------------addded-----------------

got to learn to not be so wordy.....

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Stan

[ShovelStrokeEd]

You should be able to feel it with no problem. The bolt has a shoulder on it with an O-ring seal. Work the bolts in till all 4 are finger tight. Now, working in a criss-cross pattern, tighten each a bit. There will be a point where the torque required to gain any further rotation will increase dramatically. That's it, tight enough. It is the point where, as mentioned, the shoulder just touches down.

[leikam]

Or you could do as we mere mortals do and use your torque wrench.

[jbh]

Wow, that was fast response. I immediately put the computer down and loosened the bolts and retorqued to 8nm so now I should be good to go. This board is great because of the fast and good responses I get.

 

On another note, a few years back when I first attempted a valve adjustment on an ATV I decided to torque the valve adjusting nut without a torque wrench or without any knowlege of how tight it should be and stripped it. I thought I had messed up big time and I would be out all sorts of money to fit it. Luckily new parts were only about $5 from Honda, plus the cost of a torque wrench.

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

You should be able to feel it with no problem. The bolt has a shoulder on it with an O-ring seal. Work the bolts in till all 4 are finger tight. Now, working in a criss-cross pattern, tighten each a bit. There will be a point where the torque required to gain any further rotation will increase dramatically. That's it, tight enough. It is the point where, as mentioned, the shoulder just touches down.

 

That's pretty much what I do, except for the criss-cross stuff. There is friction torque from the rubber grommet that you feel as you're screwing the bolt in (with an allen wrench), then suddenly it gets a lot harder to turn. I go about another 5 degrees and call it good. Have checked with an 8 N*m torque wrench on previous occasions; sometimes this turns the bolt a bit more, sometimes not, so I figure it's in the ballpark. Even if it's not tightened to 8 N*m, as long as you're down to where the bolt's shoulder contacts the cylinder head, that's tight enough; the gasket is fully compressed, so there won't be any leaks, and there's enough friction (from the grommet) and preload (from the gasket) so the bolt won't back out on its own.

[BobFV1]

I think a torque wrench should only ne used if you know the propoer torque setting - if you don't, probably better to go by feel. If it is something important like a cylinder head bolt where there are concerns about warping, make sure and find the torque setting, no matter what. But for regular applications without high pressure or any other complications (like a BMW valve cover), well, there is always the way it was done before torque wrenches - just snug 'em up until they don't leak!

[ShovelStrokeEd]

Yep, it's a valve cover for chrissakes, not the mount for the gyrostabilizer on the moon rocket. Snug plus a grunt is just perfect. A little bigger grunt for the drain plugs, about the same for the fork clamps. You do get the hang of it after 40 or so years.

[smiller]

I'm really surprised you made it to 25nm... that should have been enough to introduce you to Mr. Helicoil.