Torquing intake bolts on 3.1 out of 95 cutlass Ciara cruiser
 

I have a husky digital torque wrench. I am trying to torque down some intake bolts on my car but the number seems to go up and down between 27-28 ft pounds while I’m trying to tighten the bolts. Can some explain this to me please?

also the book is saying to torque the intake bolts to 115 ft pounds, is that number really correct?

What is there between 27 and 28?
115 is not the correct number for the intake.

since the wrench is digital so it can be something like 27.23. Do you have any idea what can make a digital unit register 1 number than start to go down slighty instead of going higher since I’m still tightening the bolts?

​​​​​​​My guess is the bolt it tightening up against friction and then unbinding a little. Not worth worrying about unless it didn't thread in nicely. This would never be noticed on a normal non-digital torque wrench.

You want 115 inch pounds probably. Go back and verify in your book to be sure. 115 foot pounds is about right for lug nuts to hold the wheels on, but would break stuff (if you're lucky) or strip threads (if you're not lucky) in this application. Even the head bolts call for less than 50 foot pounds on this engine. 115 inch pounds is between 9 and 10 foot pounds if my math is right, so you shouldn't even be seeing 27 foot pounds for this. Again, go back and verify in your book to be sure as I don't have a spec sheet sitting next to me.

​​​​​​​Thinking about this a little more, since you're probably (at 27 foot pounds) around 300% of the torque that you should be at, you're probably breaking stuff, and that's why it it binding/unbinding over and over. The intake manifold assembly and bolts are probably damaged and probably not usable.

You need to take the intake off and chase all the threads and make sure they are nice and clean and then install at 115 inch pounds. Mitchell shows.