Stainless Steel Bolts for Engine

[1batt4u]

Hi,

Is there anyone that offers Polished Stainless Steel Bolts for the entire engine?? I remember reading awhile ago someone sells a kit?? I tried looking all over the forum but nothing.

I prefer to buy a kit from someone rather than to look where to buy what exact size, ect...

If you guys can really help me!!

Thank you!!

[jangell]

I recently ordered a lot of polished stainless hardware from www.polished-stainless.com (http://www.polished-stainless.com), as I described in this thread (http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?896-looking-for-bolts...M7x40mm&p=9362&viewfull=1#post9362). I took each bolt off the engine, measured them and checked the thread size, and put them into a spreadsheet. I can't guarantee this 100%, and I screwed up my order when I listed the valve and timing covers as M8s instead of M7s. While I believe it is correct now, I highly recommend checking the quantities, lengths and sizes yourself, just to be sure:


Size Thread Unthreaded Part (mm) Total Length (mm) Quantity Use
M8 1.25 15 40 3 Water Pump Mounting
M8 1.25 15 40 2 A/C Mounting
M8 1.25 0 30 2 A/C Mounting
M8 1.25 0 20 2 Coil Mounting
M7 1.00 30 50 2 Valve Cover (Passenger Side)
M7 1.00 0 60 2 Valve Cover (Passenger Side)
M7 1.00 3 25 6 Valve Cover (Passenger Side)
M7 1.00 30 50 6 Valve Cover (Driver Side)
M7 1.00 3 25 6 Valve Cover (Driver Side)
M7 1.00 0 20 2 Throttle to Intake Manifold
M7 1.00 0 20 4 W Pipe (Standard Length)
M7 1.00 0 25 1 W Pipe (Long Length, for throttle plate cover)
M7 1.00 15 35 2 Y Coolant Pipe
M7 1.00 35 55 2 Y Coolant Pipe
M7 1.00 10 30 3 Intake Manifold to Heads
M7 1.00 45 65 1 Intake Manifold to Heads
M7 1.00 20 40 19 Timing Cover
M7 1.00 0 25 5 Timing Cover
M6 1.00 0 20 3 Air Box

I don't think polished-stainless.com had all of these bolts (such as the long W pipe bolt), but they had the vast majority of them. I recommend ordering a few extra of each, just in case.

Note that this will not be cheap -- it'll probably be a couple hundred dollars total.

-- Joe

[TTait]

NOT STAINLESS

If you don't need stainless, you can go a long way just picking up a kit of 8.8 metric assorted bolts at Pep Boys or on Amazon, I think it $20-25.... last item on last page item 799-321 at:

http://www.dormanproducts.com/catalog/2500015_AssortmentGuide_pg_53_56.pdf


STAINLESS AND HARDER TO FIND
When you specifically want stainless, I've had a lot of success with Metric Specialties...

http://www.metricspecialties.com/

Before you order I'd send them the the list and have them make up a quote for you. I go there often to pick up odd bolts in 1's and 2's at times, and half the time the guy at the will call desk says "thanks for you repeat business, no charge".

Obviously that's not going to apply with an order like this, but the point is that they are good people, and they value repeat business. I think if you told them this is a kit for all the engine bolts on a Delorean, and you plan on sharing what you find as a good deal with several thousand owners via this site, they might give you 20% off or something - it doesn't hurt to ask.

[GS450-Junkie]

Won't stainless bolts in an aluminum engine weld themselves shut eventaully ? I didn't think SS and aluminum got along all that well.....That's why you can't put Stainless in the aluminum riv-nuts.

[Morpheus]

^A little anti-sieze will solve that problem.

This thread should be stickied or something, valuable info in here.

[jangell]

My recent batch of bolts arrived from polished-stainless.com the other day. It took about 9 days from the day I placed the order (last Monday) to when they arrived here in Massachusetts (this Wednesday). Here're some picture:

296129602962

This order was 50.50 pounds sterling, including 7.00 to ship it to the US.

-- Joe

[1batt4u]

Hey Joe,

Was wondering if you had the chance to install the bolts, and if everything fits correctly?

Thanks!!

[jangell]

I haven't installed all the bolts yet, but I've installed the majority of them. This includes all the engine covers. All of the bolts fit perfectly.

-- Joe

[1batt4u]

Cool!!!

So the chart with all the bolt sizes you posted are the ones you currently ordered? SO I can know to place the same order for the same sizes.

Thank you again!!!

[jangell]

So the chart with all the bolt sizes you posted are the ones you currently ordered? SO I can know to place the same order for the same sizes.

Sorry, I should clarify: That chart has been updated to be be as accurate as I can make it without taking everything apart and measuring again. Most notable is that I mistakenly listened a number of bolts as M8 in my original order, and have corrected the chart so that those are now properly listed as M7. However, I should also note that I ordered some spares as well, and I may not have used all the right bolts in all the right places (the curse of slowly putting the engine back together over a period of months).

Thus, I cannot 100% guarantee that this chart is perfectly accurate, but I believe it to be pretty close, and quite possibly totally accurate. If I hadn't screwed up my original order with the M8s, I'd be much more confident about the accuracy. I can say that if I was ordering again that I'd use that chart, but I'd only be wasting my money if I was wrong. :)

Incidentally, when I took apart the engine, I put the bolts from each part into separate ziplock bags, which I then labeled. If there were different length bolts for a part, I also either drew the arrangement of bolts on the bag, or I took photo of the bolts laid out in the order they go into the part. When I finally put the engine back together, I was able to go through those bags and match the old bolts up with the the corresponding new stainless hardware so that I could put everything back together again.

-- Joe

[1batt4u]

Hi Joe,


I am starting to work on my engine. I started to take off parts. Also in the mean time I was taking off the valve cover bolts, one at a time then putting them back, to make sure I have no problemstaking the bolts off, and to measure them. I noticed a little mistake on your chart.

4 of the bolts, towards back of the car, are 50mm long with 30mm unthreaded. You wrote only 2 of them are like that. Then there are 5 bolts, 25mm long with 3 or 4mm unthreaded, and 1 bolt 25mm long, fully threaded. I haven't seen any 60mm long bolts.

Thats all I checked for today. Will do more tomorrow and keep you and everyone posted.

Thank you!

[jangell]

I am starting to work on my engine. I started to take off parts. Also in the mean time I was taking off the valve cover bolts, one at a time then putting them back, to make sure I have no problemstaking the bolts off, and to measure them. I noticed a little mistake on your chart.

4 of the bolts, towards back of the car, are 50mm long with 30mm unthreaded. You wrote only 2 of them are like that. Then there are 5 bolts, 25mm long with 3 or 4mm unthreaded, and 1 bolt 25mm long, fully threaded. I haven't seen any 60mm long bolts.

Thats all I checked for today. Will do more tomorrow and keep you and everyone posted.

Thanks for the update -- I wouldn't be surprised if some other bolt lengths got mixed in to my car over the years, so it's possible that my setup is slightly non-standard. Or that I just screwed up. :)

I recently learned to not just try a longer bolt and hope it'll work -- I snapped off a 3" long bolt in the cold start pipe in the center of the intake manifold, and then broke an extractor off in that, so I'm having a lot of fun trying to drill it out. Point is, you definitely want to use the right length bolts!

The two pictures below show the bolts that I removed from the valve covers, with the top of the pictures representing the bolts towards the front of the car. Pretty sure the picture on the left is for the driver's side valve cover. The bolts do seem to be two lengths, although the one with the spacer and the clip on it might be a little longer (it's a little hard to tell from the photo). The bolts seem a little arbitrary, in that some of the long ones are threaded all the way while others aren't. If I recall correctly, you can tell where the longer ones go based on if the hole in the valve cover is recessed; if it is, you use a shorter bolt, and if it's not, you use a longer one. The same is true of the timing cover.

Thanks again!

-- Joe

44184419

[1batt4u]

I received most of the Stainless Steel Bolts. You guys recommend S/S washers as well??

[jangell]

I received most of the Stainless Steel Bolts. You guys recommend S/S washers as well??

I used stainless washers. I figured I might as well, since I was doing stainless bolts and the washers won't rust, but I don't know if there's any real advantage over using steel ones (besides the rusting, I mean). I believe I got mine from McMaster-Carr.

-- Joe

[1batt4u]

I got S/S washers, but they are thicker than the regular ones on the D. Don't know if that would make a difference.