Are you sure you didn't use a lb/ft torque wrench by mistake?
It can't be "cheap OEM bolts", they are metric grade 8 fasteners.
I pulled my iron block 2V with trans attached about 5 feet off the ground using only 4 of those bolts. They sure aren't weak, or cheap.
Sounds to me like you used a lb/ft wrench instead of a lb/in wrench and snapped 'em.
I could be wrong, though. Should have let me know, I have two lb/in. torque wrenches, I would have let you borrow one.
Either way I hope everything works out for you.
Positive, I first used my ft/lb. wrench and set it at 7... 7 x 12 = 84 inch lbs. which is still in the spec range (more on the low side of the spec range). And I snapped one, then I said to myself "well shit, maybe I can't use a foot lb. wrench and convert it to inches... because I was always under the impression you could. So I then borrowed an in/lb. wrench and sure enough snapped off two more! I don't know what the heck went wrong, I did the passenger side by feel and everything went fine... but when I went to get technical (and the right way to do it) I had things break. What I meant by weak bolts is maybe the valve cover was uninstalled before for whatever reason? I don't know, but I have some new ones coming in.
This is how it pretty much went down...
-Drivers side valve cover installed.
-fine for a few days.
-Then I noticed a little bit of smoke coming out the engine bay.
-Took cover off to find my brand new gasket must have got caught on a sharp peice of metal and ripped... well because it was ripped! Luckily I have an extra, so I threw that on... then thats when I started "torqing" down the bolts... or snapping them :rockon: . Hopefully she will be ready to go by tuesday night (if the bolts come in by tuesday that is).
- Good news is, I learned how to *efficiently* remove the master cylinder, hydroboost and valve cover... in literally no time at all.