Best torque wrench for my needs...

[rommelrules]

Will probably replace my valve cover gasket this coming week.
I've ordered the new gasket (part#11120034107) and 15 new seals, washers and nuts (part# 11121738607) from RMeuropean.

The Pelican project page recommends torquing the nuts to 89 in-lb (10 Nm), so all I'm missing now is a torque wrench.
Can anyone recommend a good one that is the right size, reasonably priced, easy to find and will get the job done for this project?

[ESMcBlurM3]

no need for a torque wrench for this project.

having said that, you should have a good 1/2" torque wrench in your arsenal. for this project, you would be best with a 3/8" if you really want to torque to spec

[antik]

I'm a big fan of Husky wrenches slung by Home Depot.

They don't carry the reputation of Snap-on, Mac, etc.but they're reasonably priced (competitive with Craftsman) and carry a lifetime warranty (which the Craftsman do not) since they're built by Stanley tools.

[z0lt3c]

If I could only have 1 torque wrench, either a 1/2 or 3/8 drive with a 30-150 foot pounds range would get most jobs done. I bought mine at Autozone, their Great Neck brand w/ lifetime warranty. It was around $30 for either size. I'm sure harbor freight would have one cheaper.

[Krause]

What ever you get make sure it can go to a low enough torque. just because it is an expensive one doesnt mean it is made to work with low torque applications. There are some applications that require 10-20nm, many torque wrenches don't go that low.

[ScotcH]

no need for a torque wrench for this project.

Worst advice ever. All the 10mm nuts and bolts on the BMW are super easy to over torque.

Get a couple of good torque wrenches to cover up to about 200 ft-lb and you should be good. Usually a 3/8" for 0-25 and a 1/2" for 25-200. Craftsman or Huskey will do fine for more jobs ... no need to spend a fortune unless you're rebuilding your engine.

[Blink21Me]

I'd always advice people to have a habit of using torque wrench...

I've been using the one I got from Kragen 3 years ago, it's a 1/2" Powerbuilt brand. I've used it many many times on a lot of projects until today.

[kaineb]

I agree, torque everything. When you snap a bolt will they come over and fix it for you? Get a good 1/4" low value torque wrench. It will save your tail. I got mine off of amazon for about $75 plus shipping.

[M-technik-3]

Have a screwdriver Tq wrench and 1/2 and 3/8 drives. The key is releasing the tension after use, storing properly and calibration on a routine basis.

If it's calibrated it will give you the + and - percentages so you know where you are. Granted I get mine done through a shop at no cost to me.

[desynch]

I've got 2 torque wrenches.

A husky one 25-250, 1/2" drive, and a Craftsman 10-75 (iirc), 3/8". Use it fairly often. Important to properly torque things down. But the thing with torque wrenches...you can use them for however long you want, but they DO need to be calibrated every once in a while. You might get a false peace of mind using a wrench until it comes out that you stripped a bolt while set for the proper torque. So it's equally important to know if it needs calibration or not.

[RRSperry]

If you really want to torque something to 10Nm you are going to need a really small wrench... The applied torque should be in the 1/4 to 3/4 scale range. Below or above that, the wrench isn't very accurate.

So for 10 Nm you need a 0-25Nm wrench

For most jobs, you need a 10-150lb-ft 1/2" drive, and a 0-80lb-ft 3/8" drive.

I bought an electronic load cell meter. 0-150lb-ft usable full scales and accurate +-2 lb-ft... 1/2" drive. You can set target torque and it shows peak torque as well.

Now, for the valve cover, 1/4" drive and a small ratchet. I'm not using a torque wrench...

[rommelrules]

Wow, folks, thanks for all the answers! Looks like 1/2 and 3/8" is the way to go. I will shop around today and check out prices.

The reason I want to use a torque wrench for the valve cover nuts is because my experience is limited-- just starting out with DIY's--
and over-torquing the nuts will just damage the gasket and make it leak again which kind of defeats the purpose here.

And there's a good chance I will over-torque them even though my mechanic just says to tighten them "just enough" and then give it another turn for good measure.
Of course, he has 30 years experience, I don't. Until then, I'll use a torque wrench...

Also, don't be surprised if I make some dramatic posts on this thread asking for help when I tackle this in a couple of days...

[ScotcH]

Wow, folks, thanks for all the answers! Looks like 1/2 and 3/8" is the way to go. I will shop around today and check out prices.

The reason I want to use a torque wrench for the valve cover nuts is because my experience is limited-- just starting out with DIY's--
and over-torquing the nuts will just damage the gasket and make it leak again which kind of defeats the purpose here.

And there's a good chance I will over-torque them even though my mechanic just says to tighten them "just enough" and then give it another turn for good measure.
Of course, he has 30 years experience, I don't. Until then, I'll use a torque wrench...

Also, don't be surprised if I make some dramatic posts on this thread asking for help when I tackle this in a couple of days...

Excellent way of thinking dude. There is no shame in admitting that you don't know what 10nm feels like. Using the tq wrench should be second nature ... it only take a sec to go over the nuts, and then you know the job is done right without the frustration of having to fix a stripped, or worse, snapped bolt.

The head is very soft ... it's very easy to strip the aluminum. Do right the first time, and every time.

Btw, the most critical part of this job is getting the rear half-moon parts of the gasket to sit right, and using some good RTV on corners and the joints to the timing cover. Everything else is just lining it up, and tightening in sequence.

[Chokingdogs]

I bought an electronic load cell meter. 0-150lb-ft usable full scales and accurate +-2 lb-ft... 1/2" drive. You can set target torque and it shows peak torque as well.

Do you by chance have a photo of said item, that or make/model #?

Sounds exactly like something I got from Sears about 5 years ago that's no longer made. Has a control box that looks kind of like a multimeter and a small wired cylinder looking gizmo with male and female 1/2" drives on either end.

[E36BMW3series]

My 2 cents is don't use a torque wrench. I did it one time and ended up taking a bolt right off. Then I had to wait for the dealer to get the part in and do it all over again.

You simply want the bolt to be up against the bottom, and it's fairly easy to do this by feel. I used the smallest wrench I had and just went light on it. Remember to do a star pattern and to put sealant on the half moons and where the vanos meets the front of the block only. Because of the rubber grouments the torque spec is not critical.

[benjlv]

I like bar torque wrenches. They work on very simple principles, and hold their calibration better.

They absolutely suck to use, but they are inexpensive and work well. Every torque wrench i pick up in the shop here at work is messed up or is otherwise untrustworthy.

best torque wrench i ever used was a snap on that had a digital display that read a strain guage.

[fun2drive]

I have 3 torque wrenches and use them all. Best is my Snap-On which beeps and vibrates when torque is reached. Expensive but when you rebuild your engine or other applications requiring a lot of torque worth the money.
I have a generic Sears 3/8" which is around 50 bucks on sale and I think goes to 100 ft pounds and as low as 20 (from memory) and my 1/4" is good for I think 180 inch pounds which covers the spectrum.

I use a torque wrench religiously because of breaking too many bolts and nuts without using one. Gee is this tight enough? No tighten it more and snap.

BMWs in general don't take well to ham fisted mechanics and I have never broken a bolt or nut since using a torque wrench correctly for the last 25 years.

My advice, buy a good Sears or known reliable 3/8" torque wrench that goes to at least a 100 ft pounds and get an adapter for a 1/2" so you can use it to torque your wheels as well...

[Badgtho is back]

i have a nice Matco swivel-head 3/8 drive torque wrench that's great for tight places.. it only goes up to 75 ft lbs however.

[YAOGinanM3]

no need for a torque wrench for this project.

having said that, you should have a good 1/2" torque wrench in your arsenal. for this project, you would be best with a 3/8" if you really want to torque to spec

I hope you are not suggesting that he not use a torque wrench on the valve cover after he went to the trouble and expense to buy new parts.

AFAIK there are no 1/2" torque wrenches that are capable of working at this low a torque setting and most 3/8" torque wrenches cannot go this low either. To reliably and accurately get reading this low the OP will likely need a 1/4" torque wrench.

That said any reasonably serious mechanic even a home mechanic will have several torque wrenches in various drive sizes and torque ranges or at least know who to borrow one from.

HTH!

Will probably replace my valve cover gasket this coming week.
I've ordered the new gasket (part#11120034107) and 15 new seals, washers and nuts (part# 11121738607) from RMeuropean.

The Pelican project page recommends torquing the nuts to 89 in-lb (10 Nm), so all I'm missing now is a torque wrench.
Can anyone recommend a good one that is the right size, reasonably priced, easy to find and will get the job done for this project?

Be very careful about the advice being given here. Some of these posts are completely wrong and may cause damage. The most important thing to know about torque wrenches is the fact that there are two primary measuring standards in use. The S.A.E. standard (U.S.A.) expressed in ounce/inch, pound/inch and pound/feet. Ounces per inch are much smaller than pounds per inch just as are pounds per foot. So obviously you need to use the correct range torque wrench or you will end up breaking things like the poster who claims he used a torque wrench on his valve cover gasket install and broke off the studs.

The metric standard expressed in newton meters which is in use by just about the entire world except the U.S.A. even though officially we have been adopting the metric system since the early 1970's. Just as the SAE system has different force ranges the metric system has them also. The most commonly used torque range for automotiver use is Newton meters.

Read your torque specs very carefully and you will see this is a very low torque specification. 10Nm is about 7.4pound/feet which is just finger tight for an 8 year old child. This is not to say the torque value is not important, it's very important to stick to the factory specs for torque even if you think you know better.

So as you can see to accurately torque thess nuts you will need a very low torque range tool. More common DIY jobs will require torque settings much higher than this requiring additional torque wrenches with higher ranges and larger drive sizes.

I've found that the fewest high quality torque wrenches you can buy and have most DIY jobs covered seems to be three. You can easily use a 1/4" drive 30-200 pound/inch micrometer click type wrench, a 3/8" drive split beam type with a 20-100 pound/foot range and a 1/2" drive split beam type with a 50-200+ pound/foot range. I highly recommend the split beam types for speed and reliability as they do not need to be reset to their lowest setting to retain proper calibration over time as they do not rely on a spring to measure force. Split beam types are also much faster to set and use when approaching final torque in multiple steps which is frequently required for many common torque setting tasks like for your wheels.

Also realize that torque wrenches need to be calibrated on a regular basis if you expect them to be reasonably accurate and repeatable. This is not an overly expensive thing to have done and it pays to buy high quality torque insturments as most of the autoparts store brands are hard to get calibrated and are also not particularly consistent which is a requirement for certification of a torque wrench.

Questions? Just ask!

HTH!

[ButtDyno]

I'm a big fan of Husky wrenches slung by Home Depot.

They don't carry the reputation of Snap-on, Mac, etc.but they're reasonably priced (competitive with Craftsman) and carry a lifetime warranty (which the Craftsman do not) since they're built by Stanley tools.

Is there a place you can get em recalibrated?

I have one of the digital beepy ones from Gearwrench and really like it, just have to keep extra batteries on hand at all times just in case.

[BadBoostedBmwM3]

I have 3 torque wrenches and use them all. Best is my Snap-On which beeps and vibrates when torque is reached. Expensive but when you rebuild your engine or other applications requiring a lot of torque worth the money.
I have a generic Sears 3/8" which is around 50 bucks on sale and I think goes to 100 ft pounds and as low as 20 (from memory) and my 1/4" is good for I think 180 inch pounds which covers the spectrum.

I use a torque wrench religiously because of breaking too many bolts and nuts without using one. Gee is this tight enough? No tighten it more and snap.

BMWs in general don't take well to ham fisted mechanics and I have never broken a bolt or nut since using a torque wrench correctly for the last 25 years.

My advice, buy a good Sears or known reliable 3/8" torque wrench that goes to at least a 100 ft pounds and get an adapter for a 1/2" so you can use it to torque your wheels as well...

Bingo.... my only torque wrench. I used a friend's then I had to have it. The one time I used a mechanical torque wrench it stripped a nut on me. I believe the wrench needed to be calibrated.

[YAOGinanM3]

Is there a place you can get em recalibrated?

I have one of the digital beepy ones from Gearwrench and really like it, just have to keep extra batteries on hand at all times just in case.

Amazingly somehow I've got seven torque wrenches in all and use them every time I work on my cars or firearms. I've got a 1/2" fixed micrometer clicker, a 1/2" flex-head split beam clicker, a 3/8" flex-head micrometer clicker, a 3/8" flex-head split beam clicker, a 1/4" flex head micrometer clicker, a low torque range 1/4" fixed micrometer clicker and a Wiha low torque range driver with interchangeable heads. These are mostly Snap-On and Precision Instruments (who until recently the manufacturer of Snap-On brand torque wrenches), one Craftsman 1/2" micrometer and one Wiha Precision driver. I found it more convenient to have a couple of separate instruments on the bench for my precision rifles.

I have been using a great test and calibration lab for some time called Team Torque. They are an NIST and A2LA certified test and calibration lab. Every torque wrench you send to them will come back with a test and calibration certificate showing your your tools test results. I keep all of my torque tools calibrated by rotating them through Team Torque every couple of years. I'm not using them in a commercial shop environment, they never get rough use or dropped and my torque tools are of high enough caliber to not need excessive calibration. I can confirm this by noting the before and after test results on the certificate they come back with. Teamtorque.com check them out!

I have no use for the digital torque wrenches due to issues with batteries and the bad habit they seem to have of crapping out during critical use so I'm all mechanical. Not saying they are bad just inconvenient at times to need a battery reload in the middle of working with a tool.

Cheers!