Anyone that thinks they can tell how tight something is torqued "by hand" is fooling themselves.
Sometime I'll tell the story about replacing the casting plug in the end of a 383 head...with the engine in the car....on the end that faces the firewall...without removing the head.
I'm about to do that on a 440 Chrysler 300. My plan was a plumbing bar clamp. I would be very interested in his way.
IIRC what Vern did was use a bar and a block of wood against the firewall. Took a punch and, in combination with the bar, pressed on a side of the plug to turn it sideways. He then pulled it out with a smaller bar. Cleaned the bore up with some abrasive cloth (as I remember this was the worst part), then used a socket and the bar/wood combo to press the plug in. He was leveraging everything off the firewall using the wood block as a spreader. I can't remember him disconnecting the kickdown linkage or the throttle linkage but he must have as this was the driver's side head. This was a mid 60's Chrysler wagon if my memory isn't totally crap today.
