Does anyone know why Motordyne specs out 5 ft-lb torque on the new intake manifold bolts while the Infiniti Service Manual says 9-10 ft-lb?

I'm off to do the installation right now.....

best he answers, but I think is because of the aluminum. The spacer is made of aluminum and u dont want to warp it, its more pliable..... Anyone else???


Ehh, just realized who put up the post :P

Wuts up p-diddy?

****, btw on the figure above, (8), the gasket, it says replace after every assembly. Well, I took the gasket that was already there, and sandwithced the spacer with the new one that Tony sent (as I think was isntructed). Are we ok with keeping the old gasket?

most likely not... gaskets deforms, just like washers and crush seals.. good idea to replace

the manual will always call for new gaskets.

The older the car and the more miles - the more sense it makes.
This is a metal body with a rubberized gasket all around. It shouldn't present a problem to reuse once or twice.

Here is Tony's (from Motordyne) response from my350 forum:
By using the max spec value of the torx studs it helps to prevent potential thread fatigue. 9-10 can be used but I find 4-5 ft-lbs is fully adequate for the application.

If you look on page EM-22 of the FSM, it states 44-61 in/lb for all bolts (if torque studs were removed)

I see the 9 ft/lb value above, but only for 3 bolts. I would go with the lesser of the 2, adding torque if necessary.

I still think there's some confusion here over the correct torque. If you look further on in that section of the manual, the 40 - 61 in-lbs is referenced for the "stud bolts." I showed (via email) the shop manual pages to Tony the other day and asked if he thought this lighter torque was just for the two studs that are meant for positioning the Upper Plenum and gasket rather than the bolts themselves. Not sure that 5 ft-lbs will hold up to all the vibration but would suggest in the absence of a certain answer that you use 5 lbs, and re-check every few weeks for the first 3 months.

Don't use a torque wrench that measures in ft-lbs. The error is much worse than a torque wrench that measures in in-lbs. Probably close to 16 times worse.

Remember if the wrench has a 10% accuracy, this accuracy is applied to the overall operational range of the torque wrench, not the measurement you're setting the wrench at.

Go by the 61 in-lbs and use the appropirate wrench is my advice.

5 lbs is barely finger tight. I'd go with 10 ft lbs. but carefully.
C.

I'm using a calibrated in-lb clicker-style torque wrench that I borrowed from work, so I know it's accurate I agree though, ft-lb wrench will not be as accurate.

I ended up torquing the bolts to 72 in-lb (6 ft-lb) this morning. I'll check the torque on them late tonight after my car is cool to see if it holds.

I'm thinking of getting regular washers instead of the reduced OD ones for the middle 6 bolts of the plenum to spread out the stress in those areas.

After further review, I would bump up to 8-9 ft-lb on all but the stud holes (now replaced by bolts)

lgangi-good call on the vibration. These motors are so smooth, I sometimes forget.

I did to 5-6 ft-lb initially, then waited after 3 days of hard driving, rechecked and they were pretty much still at around 5-6 ft-lb. Just for safe measure, I reachecked all 18 bolts twice at around 6 ft-lb. Now i'm thinking I should have kept the torque wrench (i leased it from ace-auto for 6 bucks for 4 days...), rats

what i did was just hand tight it to a point which feels like the force i had used to take the stock bolts off...no problem yet... should i loosen it up and rent a torque wrench?

Yes, you should torque it properly. Tightening by feel is not reliable at all.