I am working on a w003 f150 with the 4.2 ohv. I replaced gaskets from the heads up. The machinist said he barely had to touch the surface whe he cleaned them up. Now I am trying to set the valvse/rocker arms. I checked with a torque wrench on the one loose one and was upward of 60-70ft/lbs. Is that right? I know to spin push rods while tightening until they stop, then another180 degrees. Anybody have a suddgestion?

 

I've never heard of going by feel, always just torqued them. I just got a haynes manual to put my 4.2 back together and it says 23-29 ft-lbs. It also mentions nothing about feeling them for tightness, just torquing them.

Now that head torque pattern with the loosening after the 2 tightening stages and re-torquing thats pretty bizarre never had to do that. Guessing thats something unique to these aluminum heads, I haven't put anything with an aluminum head back together before.

I hope my heads in the same shape didn't bother taking it to a machine shop just crossing my fingers. Spent part of today cleaning the head and intake of a ridiculous amount of carbon and grime. Thinking I should of taken it to a machine shop but then I'd want to pull the other head and have it professionally cleaned too. Also have to take all the valves out and put them back in, when I'm hoping to just swap the one bad valve and throw the head back in.