Tiny Torque Specs

It is also worth noting that most of those small torque specs simply mean "hey doofus, don't over tighten this", and you don't really need to use a torque wrench -- just don't strip out the fastener. You'd be surprised how few of the items you really need to torque exactly to spec. You will note that most torque specs, when reached, the bolt has just started to exponentially become harder to turn. As you're tuning a bolt, it will spin freely, then start to tighten with a near linear increase in resistance, then as you approach the correct torque, it will start to exponentially increase in resistance. I refer to this as "a tug past snug". The thing to remember, and to acclimate your muscle memory to, is the fact that exponential resistance will be a different amount of resistance depending on the fastener, so pay attention as you are tightening to the force you're using.

When I did my cam install, all I torqued down with a torque wrench were the cam caps, valve lash adjusters, cam gears, and cam sensor wheels. Things that absolutely require accurate torquing are generally things north of 20 lb-ft in areas where bearings are being seated or high tensile load will be exposed such as head studs, cam caps, rod bearings, crank caps. Other areas that expose different metals or metals of different thicknesses to being clamped together should be torqued correctly if at all possible -- but as you may have found out already, this isn't always possible, so it is in your best interest to train your hand to determine when a fastener is torqued correctly by paying attention to the resistance given by the fastener right before your torque wrench clicks.