Well I was in the middle of doing some preventative maintenance including the replacement of the plastic crossover pipe, coolant tower and thermostat housing and when I went to look the torque specs up on my downloaded manual, I discovered my Chromebook decided to overwrite my downloads file without asking! So can anyone give me the torque specs for the bolts in the coolant crossover pipe and coolant tower for my 2003 XK8? I think I might remember 10Nm but not sure and I really would like to wrap this thing up. Although how the heck you can properly torque the two back bolts in the coolant tower that are tight to the intake, I have no idea!

Thanks for any help!

 

8 to 12 NM for 1999 specs. Doubt it is much different for 2003.

BTW coolant temp sensor is 15 to 19.

John

 

Thanks John! I used 10Nm or appx 7.25 foot pounds which is a close as I could get on my torque wrench. Everything seemed to go back together well but a leak test will tell tomorrow.

 

To do the 2 rear coolant tower bolts @ the proper torque, you need crowfoot wrench heads available from Home Depot etc,

https://www.homedepot.com/b/Tools-Ha...-5yc1vZ1z18gbr

 

I never could find a regular 3/8ths drive crows foot wrench in 8mm or 5/16" and all the sets I found only went down to 10mm or 3/8". But I was able to torque them using a ratcheting box end with the flexible head and then and 8mm Allen key in the open end side and fit the torque wrench to the Allen key. I got the wrench in a set from Amazon .
The torque trick seemed to work okay. Although the 8mm ratcheting wrench gave up the ghost and started slipping right after I finished with the last bolt I had to have it for! But I think it has a one year warranty. I refilled the coolant, ran it up to temp and leak tested last night and no problems. I'm glad I didn't do the fill through the upper radiator hose, as the fill through the coolant tank was plenty fast enough.

Let it cool down over night and checked the level today and everything was fine. Took it on a little test drive about half an hour ago up to 70 MPH (a bit chilly at 66F and 70 MPH with the top down). Performed well. Monitored the temp via an OBDII link to my phone and stayed right around 186 degrees and if left idling up to 199 before fans kicked in and dropped it back down. Same as it did before. No visual leaks or smells of one again. So I think my Kitty is purring well again! But I will keep an eye on the coolant levels for a bit.

 

Don't you love it when the plan comes together?

 

I try to avoid offset torques because you need to recalculate the torque based on the length of the offset.
If you don't recalculate, you're using the wrong torque value. Basically, it's easy to screw it up.
When I replaced my coolant tower or anything similar, being accessible and not critical, I torque what I can then tighten the others to the same feel.
No leaks is all I needed.

 

I did torque the back two coolant tower bolts by feel initially. Going by how the front two felt with the ratcheting box end after they were torqued and trying to get a similar feel using the same wrench on the back. When I figured I could use the 8mm Allen key in the open end of the ratcheting box end to connect the torque wrench, I gave it a try. Surprisingly, it appears I was pretty close as the torque wrench "clicked" to it's setting with probably less than an 1/8th of a turn on both back bolts! I'll take that and call it a win!