Honestly, the "rebuild kit" probably wasn't OEM Kirby Morgan, which is why the parts were off.

Stick with the store brand spices at the grocery, same quality for half the price.

300k seems like a pretty high estimate unless you were planning on some really aggressive litigation. I've dealt with a few arbitration clauses over the years and the travel costs are real but usually more like 10k or 15k for a few trips. Did legal actually calculate that number or was it more of a "worst case" guess from your boss? Also if you're just buying a SaaS product and not building something custom the odds of a serious dispute are pretty low to begin with.

Have you tried dropping it even lower, around 340?

Wait, did your old timer mention anything about the type of anti-seize you were using? The silver copper stuff conducts electricity way differently than the nickel based stuff, and I've seen that cause issues with spark plug readings on modern coil-on-plug systems. He's right about the galling risk though, especially on aluminum heads that have already been heat cycled a few times. The main thing people miss is that anti-seize changes the friction coefficient enough that you can actually hit the same clamping force with less turning force, which messes with the torque wrench reading. I've been using a tiny dab of nickel antiseize on just the first couple threads and torquing to the middle of the dry spec range, never had one back out or seize up in twenty years of wrenching.