[TigerHeli]

17 foot-lbs is pretty high to me (204 inch-lbs). Torque on my Focus is 60 inch-lbs, not that it matters.

If it was torqued beyond 17 foot-lbs, I wouldn't back it off and re-tongue unless you are replacing the gasket. The gasket could have been over compressed and likely will not "pop" back out.

Not a bad DIY, but you need a torque wrench - http://www.harborfreight.com/14-in-drive-click-type-torque-wrench-61277.html - and you need to alternately tighten in three steps as above - i.e. alternately tighten until each bolt is at 72 inch-lbs, then alternately tighten until each bolt is at 144 inch-lbs, then alternately tighten to 200 inch-lbs.

If the shop will do it for free, I would probably let them.

It can't hurt and might fix the leak, but it might be that the gasket still needs to be replaced.

Actually, the gasket replacement isn't a bad DIY either - you just remove the bolts, remove the cover, clean the mating surfaces with brake cleaner, install the new gasket and re-torque the bolts as above.

 

[TigerHeli]

it's not car specifric and very general, but how do you test for compression? You plug that thing in where the spark plug goes?https://youtu.be/nABx4GwhV68

Correct - although you really only need to do that if the engine is running badly.

 

[TigerHeli]

The i4 5SFE is an odd design, the cover is only held by the large nuts on the 4 spark plug tubes as opposed to bolts.

That is an odd design.

As for the torque wrench, I was told you'll to avoid the extremes of the torque range for better accuracy, in that case it may be better to get a 3/8 one with a range of 10-80 ft/lb vs maxing out a 200in/ft 1/4 drive torque wrench

That is correct, except 10 ft-lbs is above the 6 ft-lb's initial torque and very close to the 12 ft-lbs intermediate torque.

Ideally, you would want to do the first two torques with a 1/4-inch wrench and the final torque with a 3/8-inch.

But that means having two torque wrenches. Fortunately H/F sells those for $10 each every few weeks, so I just bought one of each.

Then again, it would be hard to find a 30-mm socket in anything other than 1/2-inch drive, but there are always reducer and expansion adapters.

 

[TigerHeli]

I use a 1/2 30mm socket, a 1/2 socket adapter that lets you use the socket in a drill/impact (they have 1/2 on one side and 1/4 on the other, and then a 1/4 size socket on a 3/8 torque wrench.

Okay, that works, but wouldn't the adapter on the left be easier: http://www.harborfreight.com/4-pc-high-visibility-socket-adapter-set-67925.html

(And for initial torque, the 1/4-inch wrench with the 3rd from left adapter plugged into the leftmost adapter plugged into the socket).

 

[TigerHeli]

Good advice - although with valve covers and wheel nuts (which are what I usually use torque wrenches on), you are really concerned with differential torque.

I.e. if the wheel nuts are supposed to have 76 foot-lbs having them all at 90 foot-lbs is better than having 2 at 70 and 2 at 80, and an inaccurate but repeatable wrench is likely to torque them all to the same value - which is okay, just not the intended value.

(Within reason and experience, of course - if you barely put pressure on the wheel lug and the wrench clicks, something is probably not correct.)