guitarman said:
Is there a Honda mechanic on this list that can help us out here with the question of hand tightening vs. tool tightening???
This is not an issue particular to Honda. (I am not a PROFESSIONAL auto mechanic)
I have the Pilot service manual in front of me.
With any threaded fastener, it is best if you understand the goal to understand how it is best tightened.
The two most common methods are torque and Degrees of turn past contact.
Torque is typically used when the fastener system has little compression.
In this mode a specific amount of torque applied combined with the pitch and diameter of the threads will apply a reproducible amount of clamping force at the matting surface (This is the real goal).
Degrees of rotation is typically used when the fastening system is expected to compress significantly (such as a gasket).
In this mode a specific amount of rotation combined with a specific thread pitch will compress the system as known and reproducible amount (This is the goal).
So in an oil filter mount, you go not particularly care about the clamming force between the filter and the mount. You do want to compress the rubber gasket a specific amount.
I hope this helps.
As an aside, it is getting very common for even head gaskets to be "torqued" by using the degrees of rotation method, as it has been shown to be more reproducible and accurate.