cylinder head bolts (not nuts)

I am still thinking torque wrench, but if not then has the motor poss been overheated sometime in its life so the bolts have become soft?
You might pm Duck, I think he worked out a way to test the wrenches using a vise, dont remember the details, but he has "proved" toruqe wrenches before.
one othe note, if you dont back off the torque wrench when you store them they will not be accurate

I am not all that familiar with your engine... what bolts are we talking about? There are only two bolts on a 903/1015 cylinder head and these are 6mm bolts and torque is less than 6 ft/lbs as I recall. In order for a bolt to have a torque spec of over 20, it would have to be a 10 or 12mm bolt.

It's a 6mm 43mm long bolt. No doubt 18 ft/lb is way overboard on this size bolt.

Maximum torque for a 6mm grade 12.9 bolt is 12 ft lbs according to this Chart

hey now guys, its a 8mm bolt. and i got a message from jeff telling me that he feels some of the oem kawasaki bolts are junk anyways. he suggests i go to the hardware store and get something with a higher grade for this stress. the bolts i bought from kawasaki arent even graded which really supports jeffs comments. it also makes alot of sense considering i stretched a brand new bolt last night in no time.

if i get a higher grade bolt and install it to that high torque, do you think ill have to worry about the threads stripping out? do you think kawasaki is really going ove board on this torque for an 8mm bolt?

Are you "SURE" it's not calling for in/lbs ?

That sounds like an awful lot if its the bolts I am thinking of .