While you make a really good case, and explain it really well..... it's not that big a deal. I've done a lot of these motors. I just convert to ft lbs if it goes beyond my inlb torque wrenches limit. I've used the bottom end of the scale so many times on my small 3/8" click type Snap-On wrench it's silly. I have never had a failure that was a result of over or under torquing. I'm sure that if you put a wrench on a test stand, it would confirm that they aren't as accurate... which is likely why they tell you that, but here's something I do know: I too spent big dollars on a digital Snap-On torque wrench that is supposed to be accurate all through the scale since it uses a sensor, and not a spring. When torquing with it, you can visually watch the scale, and it lets out a beep (which I can seldom hear) and also vibrates in my hand. Once you have reached the torque, the screen displays the max torque you put on the fastener. I have never had it land EXACTLY on the torque I was shooting for. Sometimes it goes off just before the proper torque is reached, sometimes it goes over. It is pretty amazing to see when doing a head on say a DT466 IH motor, how far apart it shows you are torquing. Maybe 15 pounds difference between bolts. Now, that is at the top end of the scale, but I think you would find there is so much variance between when you feel that wrench click (if that is the style you are using) and what it actually torques as there is on that digital wrench. If you take an old beam style wrench and compare it to a new digital, you would find very little difference between them. While I agree that torquing is important, how it gets done really has little consequence, at least in this application. Now, the newer stuff is a little more sensitive. Sheared rod bearings and powder forged cranks are just more sensitive. Besides, now they have went to almost all torque-to-yield fasteners anyway, so you have to get a new bolt every time you torque it. (Stupid.) This old Kohler was engineered in the days of beam wrenches and the slide rule. Whatever wrench he used is likely no worse than they had at the time it was new. I'm confident it will be fine. I've done too many things not to be sure. What's important is he torqued it.
