Do You Reuse Your Bolts?

[simplyconnected]

Hey... you restorers and back yard mechanics... do you re-use your bolts or throw them away and replace them with new?

[Guest]

I reuse almost all ...

the body and chassis bolts unless they are compromised in some way. I bead blast, prime and paint them all before reusing them. I also have buckets of hardware from from other vehicles I have striped out. On engines I normally replace crank, and rocker arm bolts with ARP studs and use aftermarket rods and ARP rod bolts. ARP fastners for head bolts too. On engine exterior hardware I use stainless. On a stock or mild performance build I wouldn't hesitate to to use stock hardware with the exception of rod bolts. Mike

[Guest]

I can refer to myself as being anal retentive about saving fasteners and other assorted small parts and thank my Dad for this trait. Standard steel, grade 8, SAE, metric, stainless, brass, copper, nuts, bolts, washers, locks, allens, sets, screws, Phillips, slots, squaredrives, torx, etc, etc, etc; it’s all sorted.

My father was a North Dakota farmer’s son during the depression. Saving and scrounging was a way of life in those days from the ‘20’s into and thru the WWII era. Dad had screw top glass jars with the lids screwed to a plywood panel, the jars then easily screwed onto the lids and each jar held the assorted nails, screws and bolts. The plywood panels were then screwed onto the ceiling of the garage and work shop. A step stool provided arm’s reach access to the many part’s jars. Dad never threw away a fastener and even went so far as to hammer-straighten all old nails to be saved. One of my chores as a child was to straighten and sort nails for his collection.

I don’t straighten nails anymore, but do save all fasteners. My work shop has parts cabinets with small parts drawers, small parts bins and compartmentalized boxes. When I don’t have a fastener or multiple fasteners that I need for a project, I normally go to the hardware store and purchase a few more then I need so not to be caught short again in the future. I recall starting my own fastener collection when I was a young boy and always strived to have a better organized collection then my father’s. Guess it was kinda like a father/son competition. When he died in 2003 not only did I inherit all of his hand tools and such, but also his fastener collection and incorporated it into mine.

I feel better now having confessed a mild form of Freudian obsessive-compulsive disorder.

[Dakota Boy]

Must be a Dakota Territory habit: the glass jars full of fasteners, with the lids nailed in place....

My dad and my grandpa both had these sorts of setups on thier SoDak farms.

I still save fasteners, not out of necessity.... I'm just CHEAP.

[Guest]

When I rebuilt my engine and redid the interior, I replaced everything external. I bought a chrome bolt kit for the 352. I did clean and reuse all the main and internal bolts.

What are you thinking of replacing?

[simplyconnected]

What are you thinking of replacing?

I know better... we all do. Sometimes we luck out, but on rare occassion we get caught with our pants down.

I was assembling my 292 Y-Block, and everything was going well. The bottom end was done, I had one head on and tight, I'm putting the last head on... got nine bolts tight... I'm torqueing the very last head bolt when... SNAP!

CLICK Here

Read the link. - Dave

[JohnG]

So Dave, if you had it to do over again (or if one of us was building a motor and asked you) would you use new head bolts?

I replace connecting rod bolts in all cases. Never gave head bolts much thought until now.

John

[simplyconnected]

Truthfully, if you asked me to build an engine for you, I would not use original head or rod bolts, mainly because of liability. Your engine would have new, top-quality rod and head bolts.

My engine machine shop owner insisted I use new ARP rod bolts. I didn't, for a few reasons:
* This isn't a race engine
* Rod bolts are $100 (and I'm cheap as ****)
* I'm set in my ways (also known as bull-headed), and didn't believe I really needed new bolts.

I figured these rod bolts are still good. At least they seemed ok when I torqued them.

Since building this engine, my cousin asked me to build his Amphicar engine. It's a Triumph Herald 1147 from the mid-'60's (Leyland Motors, LTD). This engine was a mess (broken rings, galled crank pins...) from water entering the crankcase.

After extensive engine machining, I was torquing the rod bolts, and guess what... one of them wouldn't tighten. It stretched forever until it finally broke. I was shocked that this tiny, low compression 4-cyl. could have weak rod bolts.

Since then, I've learned to listen intently to my engine machine shop owner. He has far more experience with old engines, whereas my experience is with new parts. I'm buying new ARP rod bolts right now, for my Y-Block. - Dave

[JohnG]

I believe there are builders who measure torque by stretch, rather than deflection of the torque wrench. Never did it myself.

Bolts fatigue with age.

Rod bolts for FE cranks are hard as **** to find.

[simplyconnected]

John, Summit sells ARP FE rod bolts (155-6002), every day price is $57.95.

They're also on eBay
I found this bolt seller online. Click Here

Deflection of wrench is distance, like when I adjust valve lash. I screw my rocker down until the pushrod has no slop, then I back off 1/4-turn. It works out to be .019" at the valve with my rocker arm ratio. - Dave

[JohnG]

I was hunting in 2005 when I rebuilt the motor. Did not
know about Summit. I actually have a spare set of new ones on the shelf.

At that time, any shop I talked to would say "why would you want to replace the bolts? No one ever does that." This hardly changed my attitude; only increased my determination.