I replaced timing gears yesterday. At the end, when I reinstalled the crank pulley, I torqued the crank bolt to 130 ft.lb. I coated the bolt with a little oil as specified by FSM. I first torqued it to 33 ft.lb, then to about 100, finally to 130. When the torque was about 120, I felt the bolt moving suddenly and at the same time, I heard a rather unpleasant noise in sync with the bolt movement. It appeared that when the bolt was turning, it made such a noise. I heard it twice when I was applying torque. The noise was not coming from the torque wrench and I don't think I cross-thread the bolt. Is this normal when torquing crank bolt? I also noticed, when aiming a mirror at the crank snout hole, that the thread inside the snout is a bit unusual. At the very far end (deep into the snout), the hole diameter seems smaller than the rest of the snout hole. But the crank bolt doesn't look tapered. I didn't pay a lot of attention to it at that time. The car runs fine and the crank pulley does not wobble. Can someone explain?

Bolts will make creaking noises when they get tight. It's just the nature of tight fasteners.

 

It will be fine. I don't even torque crank bolts - just hit them with the old hand-impact a few times and you are good to go.

 

You worry too much

 

GD

Pretty normal. Fasteners in general will make noise when you get them tight. They can pop, click, squeal, etc. Ever loosened a rusty lug nut? Rusty U bolts are the worst.

normal.

 

if it only creaked twice, you should have kept going, that's not tight enough! :lol:

 

these bolts come loose frequently when not installed tight.

It that little bit of creaking annoys you may I suggest you prepare yourself if you ever do a head gasket job. No matter how much lube, they always creak a lot.