One comment from a retired diesel guy made me stop chasing torque specs

I was doing a head gasket on a 2005 F-150 at my buddy's garage in Tulsa, cranking everything to factory spec with my clicker torque wrench. An old retired diesel mechanic walked by, watched me for a minute, and said 'you're gonna warp that deck if you keep going in that order, kid.' I had followed the manual sequence perfectly, but he pointed out I was doing it in one continuous pass instead of three stages, letting the gasket settle between each. I laughed it off at first, but after I torqued it down and checked with a straightedge, there was a slight gap near cylinder 4. He showed me his method: torque to 40%, wait 10 minutes, then 70%, wait, then final pass, always from the center out. That single piece of feedback saved me from a come-back job that would've cost me a week and $300 in parts. Has anyone else had a random shop visitor or old-timer drop a tip that completely changed your process?

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