I'm looking at the factory manual. It says only 5 ft lbs on the short intake manifold bolts, and 21-25 ft lbs on the longer ones. I have never heard of different torque specs on bolts for the same gasket. Sounds like a recipie for disaster. Any feedback. May torque them all to 21-25 to get equal pressure on the gasket.

BTW 1991 2.2L non turbo

From a Chilton's (blech!) for a 2.2L, it shows a factory-ish diagram that lists 21-25 fl-lbs for the short bolts and 5-ish for the long ones... go figure. BTW, the written description is the same.

I may be in trouble. Just tightened all of them to 24 ft lbs. Looking at diagram, think...was probably a bad idea because long bolts are on front edge of gasket. May cause a leak. Should have waited for an anwer here first.

Question: CAN I BACK OFF THE BOLTS OR IS IT TOO LATE FOR THAT? Once gasket compressed, have to leave it the way it is? Or replace the gasket?

URGHH!!!

The gasket should not be overly compressed, so you should be able to back off of the torque. I still can't see any reason why they dod that. My best guess os that they just messed up on the diagram. The lower torque spec is what you would expect to see on a sheet metal gasket joint (oil pan, ATF pan), and is meant to keep the sheet metal from deforming. If the bolt diameter can take the 25 ft-lbs (yes, they can), and I did not see any other reason for limiting torque (I don't), then I would torque all of the same diameter bolts to the same 21-25 value.