Hi folks, The Haynes manual says the bolts says the bolts should be torqued to 7 ft-lbs but doesn't mention: ...How many valve cover bolts ...The sequence they should be torqued down ...If the torquing should be done in steps Looking at an eBay valve cover, it looks like there are 9 bolts on the perimeter and 2 in the middle. When I've replaced the gasket, should I just torque them down to 7 ft-lbs, starting the middle and moving out? Cheers This post is an offshoot from: Bad knocking from top of engine...won't start | PriusChat
7 ft/lbs is really trivial too. And if this is a typical valve cover, it's a rubber gasket you're compressing. So yeah, criss-cross pattern, and several steps. What I'll often do: first go around, hold the ratchet one-handed, like a screw driver, just snugging. I think a lot of times (with past cars, Hondas) I didn't bother with torque wrench: the goal is to get decent/uniform compression of the gasket.
If you're ever in a hurry and need the right answer before some other PriusChatter has time to copy/paste it for you, you can always find it in the repair manual at techinfo.toyota.com. -Chap
Chap, Many thanks for the link and the page about torquing the valve cover. Looks like I done screwed up some of it but I've got a feeling it doesn't matter . Cheers
