Thats a relife to know I was worried I may have been over doing them. I tried with the reccommended 35lb ft and that was only giving me about 0.008 of stretch only about 70% of the recommended 0.0117 minimum. In the end I was torqueing them to around 55lb ft and was still having to make a few small adjustments to bring them into range.

Quite worrying for anyone who just toques them without measuring.

Thats exactly why torque shouldn't be used. You could give up as much as 30% and even 50% of the bolts capability using torque. Stretch is the ONLY accurate way to tighten rod bolts. And needless to say rod bolts are the weak point in all engines,ie the first point to break under stress.