I just spoke to the dealer again and they told me I have to follow some really funky torque procedure for installing the head on my 96 sportsman 500. They said to torque in cross pattern to 22 ft lbs. Then torque again to 51 ft lbs...then to lossen 1/2 turn on all...then loosen another half turn....then torque back to 11 foot lbs.... then 51...and blah blah. Do I need to follow this puzzle to torque the head??

thanks again for all your help!

 

Yeah it does sound a bit crazy but my buddy rebuilt his Predator not long ago and torqued them down to just the ft. lb. he found somewhere and it was blowing water out of his res. when he wound it out. He talked to a Polaris tech and they told him the proper way to do it which is like you describe. After that problem was solve so you better stick to how they tell you

 

Most if not all cylinder heads have a specific torque value and procedure to follow, best to do exactly what it calls for.