I think I read it's 20/lb of torque when tightening spark plugs. Anyone weigh in?

 

16 ft lbs- 23Nm.. Cold engine, no anti seize.

 

Thank you!

 

So now in another thread I've read all over the place...14.5, 16, 17....

Does it matter which brand of spark plug? I don't want to over/under tighten.

 

1.5 ft lbs is not critical... Chances are your wrench unless recently calibrated is off by at least that much.

 

So I'll split it down the middle, right where you said...at 16.

 

and if you are using a 1/2 drive 100 foot/pound torque wrench you could be 20-25% off because of the low torque you are trying to set!

torque wrenches are very inaccurrate below about 25% of full scale and above about 85% full scale

in aviation we try to stay between 30-75% of full scale ... so i have a set of torque wrenches and they all get calibrated every year

my set covers torques from 5 inch/oz to 800 foot/pounds ... then come the torque multipliers for the really big stuff!

 

apply antiseize....tighten until snug +1/4 turn........never given me any issues.

unless youve never turned a wrench in your life, i see little value in torquing plugs to a given spec.

 

Most people that turn wrenches for a living understand that there is a very good reason for torque specs. They also love it when people don't use torque wrenches since they get to make money on fixing blown out spark plugs or stripped spark plug threads. On an aluminum head you bet I'd be using a torque wrench.

 

YEP
And nothing like that sick feeling when tightening something down when it all of a sudden get looser . followed by

 

Actually that is exactly the wrench I have...a 1/2 inch 100ft/lb with a 3/8 adapter. Are you saying that setting it to 16 won't really be 16?

 

Correct. For 16 ftlb you're looking at something closer to a in/lb torque wrench

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