Straight Talk about Torque

[SneakyDingo]

The Denso link had what I use as my general guide. If I'm doing it from the comfort of my nice, warm home, chances are I already have the torque wrench out and handy, so I might as well use it. I use a torque wrench if I have one (especially if it's a new plug), and the turn guide if I don't. And the turn guide makes sense for the reasons @Kev250R points out - it's got a crush washer, and if you hold a used plug up side-by-side to a new plug it's easy to see what that does.

Plugs are cheap, so I'm pretty OK with installing a new one more frequently than needed as well - but I also have to google the values for turns or torque every single time I do the job, because it's not something I do frequently. I definitely can't do it by touch. It's finger tight and then 18 extra turns right? RIGHT? <googles>

 

[Little_Thumper_Boy]

In the spirit of that old rule of thumb "Just tight'ner up a quarter-turn before she breaks", I know of several generally 'capable' people who are just bound to overtighten or strip practically anything they attempt, short of screwing in a light bulb; it's simply not their thing. In the absence of experience or mechanical moxy (and understandably no one has time or inclination to be experienced at everything), torque values to reference can offer comfort & assurance for them to go ahead and DIY - a good thing!