I'm assembling another Ford 7.3 Power Stroke diesel engine for my work truck and having a conundrum; the spec for head bolt torque is 95 lbs. on lightly oiled threads in 3 stages, 65/85/95 lbs.
When it was time to bolt down the heads over the weekend, I could not find my little old fashioned oil can, so I poured some oil into the cap of an oil bottle and just dipped the bolt ends in oil before inserting them in bolt holes. Of course, everything was pristine clean, bolts/block/heads. I guess I thought that the oil on the ends would be forced up the threads and coat all threads as bolts went in. That did not happen and when I did the final torque, (95 lbs.), it was very apparent that I had hit dry threads by the increased friction and resistance to initial tightening.
The correct protocol is to completely wet the threads w motor oil and let it drip off, hence "lightly oiled." Even though the early 7.3s had a factory spec of 85 lbs., I'm really OCD about engine assembly and this is bugging me. I was thinking about removing each bolt one at a time and re-oiling, then re-torquing. There are 18 bolts on each head.
#1) Am I worried about nothing? #2) Any reason NOT to do what I'm considering?
TIA.
