I was putting my fuel rail back on last night and tightening it down. I looked in my Chilton's manual to find the torque spec. on the fuel rail bolts, and it said 15 ft. lbs. So I went ahead and set my torque wrench to 15 ft. lbs. and began to tighten. I could tell that it was getting pretty tight, so I went to recheck the number in my repair manual, and sure enough it was 15 ft. lbs. I checked my torque wrench--set to 15 ft. lbs. So I continued to torque it, and about one and a half more ratchets, SNAP. The bolt broke. Luckily there was enough bolt left that I got it out with the vise grips.

So, that leaves me with the question, what is the torque value for these bolts? If 15 ft. lbs. is correct, then I guess that my bolt was weak/corroded. I did pull the other 3 bolts back out (hadn't torqued them yet, just hand tight) and one of them did look like it had some corrosion going on at the top of the threads.

I didn't crossthread it because all of the threads came out clean on the bolt and it was easy to remove with the vise grips. It looks like the bolt just pulled apart at the top of the threads.

I guess it is possible that my torque wrench was dialed in correctly but not working properly...

 

90 lb. in. That's about half of what you were torquing them. There are some discrepancies even in the factory manual.

 

Yikes, no wonder that bolt broke. My repair manual says that it's 7 ft. lbs. for the 3.8L fuel rail bolts but 15 ft. lbs. for the 5.7L fuel rail bolts. More unneccesary frustration.

 

i torque mine to tight'nuff lb's

 

One really light GRUNT with a 1/4" drive....