who's a stud?

OK, I'm in the final planning stages before I put this bad-arse 302 together. I'm got allmost all my stuff. Gaskets and valve springs are a stop at Jegs on teh way home from being mine.

That leaves one final peice to the puzzle. The hardware. I just ordered stainless steel allen head bolts for my headers, oil pan, thermostat neck and valve covers. The Intake manifold bolts and timing cover/water pump bolts are grade 8. 4 of the 12 intake bolts are studs. 5 of the 9 water pump bolts are studs as well as some of the lower timing cover bolts (IIRC.)

So my question is, where can I get these studs? Do I need to make them from all-thread? Can you even buy grade 8 all-thread? I think if I can find it I can make it work. I'm sure it's not a best practice but a stud isn't much more than all-thread with a nut welded in the middle of it anyway, correct?

Thoughts? Ideas? Alternatives?

 

[Turdle]

Stainless hardware is pretty-but you have to actually handle it-
a magnet will not pick it up-it sucks IMO
Save the money-
You will also find that hardly any of the boilts will actually fit-they are too short for the thick flanges of aluminum parts

been there -done it-
they are now in my bolt bucket--

 

[aldive]

Have you checked with ASP?

 

[chriswells78]

Not ASP, but I have checked with ARP and they don't offer studs, only bolts.

 

[aldive]

Not ASP, but I have checked with ARP and they don't offer studs, only bolts.

My bad, I ment ARP not ASP, sorry.

 

[chriswells78]

Well, I got all the bolts I mentioned for $30 shipped in stainless. They are bought and paid for. I wanted stainless for as much as I could because several of the bolts in my motor were either rusted and broke or the heads were very rusty and I chanced rounding them. The climate here is hell on any normal steel. Stainless will hold up much better. One of my stock thermostat housing bolts actually crumbled when I took it out.

I have been to a couple ford part websites and none of them list the studs for the intake or the water pump/timing cover.

 

[rocket 5979]

Give Trickflow a call. They have different length studs in their hardware kits for their manifolds based upon their phenolic spacer thickness. Though it may be a different make of manifold maker I bet the threads will be the same. Find out what thread you have on your lower manifold there and just see if TF's studs are the same.

 

[chriswells78]

The upper intake to lower intake is not the issue, the issue is the lower intake to the rest of the motor. It's the two studs in the front that the coil chair sits on and the one second from the rear on the passenger side and the rear most one on the drivers side.

Additionally, I need the studs that go in the timing cover to hold on the front bracketry!

 

[rocket 5979]

The upper intake to lower intake is not the issue, the issue is the lower intake to the rest of the motor. It's the two studs in the front that the coil chair sits on and the one second from the rear on the passenger side and the rear most one on the drivers side.

Additionally, I need the studs that go in the timing cover to hold on the front bracketry!

Oh ok, I misunderstood what you meant. I do not know if all-thread is offered in any grade as high as you want. Another option available would be to buy a long grade 8 bolt that has a fully threaded shank, cut the top off and then thread a nut down onto it to secure your lower manifold and then you will have your excess left over to mount your coil tower.

I just reused some of the bolts that I pulled off of that area. It is not like they are tightened to extreme pressures so they surely aren't TTY bolts. They are also so far down in there that even if they do not look the best it will not really matter.

What did your local Ford dealership say on these bolts?

 

[Turdle]

Motor mite kit 23744 is a water pump stud kit

 

[CDW6212R]

Good find Jon, the water pump bolts are the most unique and very hard to come by on short notice. I agree that the best plan is to reuse the stock studs, replace the others as you want to.

FYI, if you work on the camshaft, be very careful tightening the tiny grade 8 cam plate bolt. The torque for that is very little, like 10lbs.ft, and anything over specs will twist that bolt apart. Good luck,