My dad is changing the upper intake on a '98 Buick LeSabre, and he needs a torque wrench that will provide torque as low as 22 Inch/Pounds. He tried torque wrenches from Sears and Harbor Freight and none of them appeared to work properly. If anyone has an Inch/Pound torque wrench (not Foot/Pounds) they would like to loan/rent me for less than 24 hrs, I'd really appreciate it.

3/1/2006 5:01:35 PM

22 in-lb = 1.83 ft-lb

http://www.onlineconversion.com/torque.htm

3/1/2006 5:08:15 PM

If you want to buy one get one of these from a bike shop:
http://www.parktool.com/products/category.asp?cat=13

3/1/2006 5:44:21 PM

what in the world on an upper intake would take less than 2ft-lb?

upper intake? aluminum? hand tighten

3/1/2006 6:01:36 PM

Thanks for looking up the conversion sparky. That would have done the trick except our torque wrench is not sensitive enough to go to 1.8 ft/lb. I think ours only goes down to 20 ft/lbs.

I may have to go to a bike shop to buy one. Since it isn't a tool we will use much, I was hoping rather to borrow or rent one instead. From what I've seen, they cost about 70 bucks....

I'm not sure why an upper intake takes less than 2ft-lbs. I think it may have something to do with the gasket... Too much torque will damage the gasket.

Thanks again to all of you. Hopefully I can find someone who will let me borrow theirs. If not, I'll buy one and I'll be able to lend someone else the tool when they need it.

3/1/2006 7:03:11 PM

It could simply be because the upper intake on these engines is composite rather than aluminum like the old ones. And yes, they do crack and shit.

BTW, Advance used to have a small torque wrench calibrated in in-lbs in their borrow-buy program. I used it to adjust the band in an automatic tranny I rebuilt.

3/1/2006 8:17:31 PM

say you need 15 inch pounds. would using a fish scale and hooking it 5 inches from the pivot point and pulling tangentally until you reach 3 pounds give you 15 inch pounds? cause i have done something like this before.

3/1/2006 10:03:12 PM

yep

3/1/2006 10:36:55 PM

i believe the part is actually plastic, maybe i'm wrong. when my dad changed his he picked up the proper torque wrench at sears.

3/1/2006 10:56:19 PM

just use a nutdriver, that wont over tq it

3/2/2006 5:56:46 AM

I am with slut on this one, I believe they are plastic.

3/2/2006 8:18:32 AM

Quote :

"It could simply be because the upper intake on these engines is composite rather than aluminum like the old ones. And yes, they do crack and shit."

About five posts up or so...

3/2/2006 8:44:40 AM

I am with Dan on this one, I believe they are composite.

3/2/2006 8:51:02 AM

He tried every inch/lb torque wrench at Sears, but none of them would "click." He even asked the salespeople at Sears and they couldn't figure out why none of them would "click" either...

I think it needs to be more precise than rigging a fish scale to it though... thanx for the idea though.

3/2/2006 11:00:36 AM

go back to harbor freight and pull the inch pound wrenches out of the box and try to click the head on the lowest setting. The first one I got was locked up. Second one worked. 25" lbs does not give much of a noticable click.

[Edited on March 6, 2006 at 2:20 PM. Reason : put your thumb on the shaft and index finger around the head and flex it. Check the CW/CCW lever.]

3/6/2006 2:17:37 PM

speed wrench FTW

3/9/2006 5:48:28 PM

do you guys seriously torque shit down that is less than like 12-15 ftlbs and is not part of the internal motor??

"hey guys lets torque down valve cover bolts"

3/9/2006 6:48:25 PM

I use special dickbeater torque.

3/9/2006 7:17:05 PM