<VV> Head Torque

[NicolCS at aol.com]

Hank said:
<snip> John is right in that GM does use power tools on the assembly line on 
the head mounting job. At least in 74-75 when I was bolting 350 heads and also 
in plant 4 on the Vega line they used them as well. No reason not to believe 
that they didn't in the 60's as well. <unsnip>

For sure GM uses power tools on the assembly line and first hand experience 
as noted above is ample proof that they used them on 350s.   Here's some 
evidence to the contrary regarding Corvairs.  I have a socket that came from the 
Corvair engine assembly line at the Los Angeles plant. It's a two-size 
telescoping socket - the extended size fits the upper studs and when it's installed on a 
rocker stud, the telescoping portion pushes inside to permit the outer socket 
to land on the rocker stud.  The chrome socket has regular thickness walls, 
not the HD style walls of power sockets.  The tool is in excellent condition 
but when I used it with a power tool to spin down the nuts and studs on an 
engine I was putting together, the retaining pin flew out and the socket came apart 
half-way through the job.  This would never have survivied a production 
environment with power drives.  I put the pieces back together; now it's just like 
it was before and I use it all the time.

Here's how I came by this tool:  When I was in LA's "South Coast Corsa" club, 
one of my club friends was "Red Jones".  Red worked at the Santa Fe Springs 
Assy plant and later at the Van Nuys plant as a quality engineer - his job was 
actually problem solver and he's the guy who would decide what would work when 
they ran out of a particular part or a process didn't work.  Red's affection 
for Corvairs was well known at the plant and when the tool-crib guy was 
cleaning house, he saved some Corvair specific tools for Red.  Before he passed 
away, Red gave this socket to me.  BTW, Red is also the guy who noticed that the 
Vega clutch disc in use at his plant looked like a Corvair disc but with a 
spring-center hub.  He mentioned that to me and I came up with what it took to 
install one and did the first conversion.  Now, there's a little bit of history! 
(very, very little!)

GM may have used a power "nut-runner", but I suspect they used 
fixed-calibration hand torque wrenches for the final tightening of the cylinder head.
Craig Nicol