Metric Stainless Steel Engine Bolt Guide

[BigTDogg (MA)]

If you're interested in dressing up your engine bay, here are all the significant nuts and bolts which you may want to replace with stainless steel. This includes dozens more bolts and nuts than any kit available.

For under the coil packs and balance tube nuts and bolts, I use a 3/8" fiber washer from Home Depot to protect the paint and powdercoating. If you use a thicker flat stainless washer, you'll need to add 2mm to the length of those bolts.

I've found most of the bolts at my local Ace Hardware. I've found HD and Lowes do not carry metric stainless hardware. For larger quantities, you may want to order from http://www.mcmaster.com

Hope you find the list useful! But be careful installing, remember, stainless steel isn't magnetic :-O

*EDIT: I forgot to mention I actually used Phillips head bolts for the CAS. Same size as listed, but I went with a Phillips for ease of adjustment.


Modified by BigTDogg (MA) at 8:44 AM 2/25/2010

[nsrZ32]

Thanks for sharing!

I've gone with these as the hardware of choice on most of my cars over the years.

[legion]

Who would've thought a post about bolts would be so helpful? Thank you! This will come in handy

[jona300zx]

Thanks man.. i need to replace the ones on the camshaft gear cover.... you know the two plastic things between the intake pipes.....which one are those???

[BigTDogg (MA)]

Thanks man.. i need to replace the ones on the camshaft gear cover.... you know the two plastic things between the intake pipes.....which one are those???

The timing cover bolts are very unique sizes. They're M6 x 1.0, but they're shoulder bolts, and impossible to find. I checked McMaster, Grainger, Fastenal; pretty much every where I could think of.

So i just hand polished them. They're a carbon steel, so they'll corrode again eventually, but one polishing usually lasts about a year. You can see my polished bolts here:



Just above the CAS. Here's how I did them. PERFORM AT YOUR OWN RISK, I ASSUME 0 LIABILITY

Place the bolt thread side in into the chuck of a drill. Don't clamp on the thread, but on the shoulder. Spin the bolt and squeeze (with your hands) the head of the bolt with a piece of 250-300 grit paper. Do that until the base finish is gone. Then go to 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000. The 1000, 1500 and 2000 grits can usually be found in a 3M variety pack in the paint section of a car parts store. Repeat the process for the head (top, front face when installed) of the bolt by just pressing on the top with the paper. Wet sanding doesn't hurt either. If you wet sanded, dry the bolt off, then apply a bit of Blue Magic or Mothers Metal polish to the bolt, let it sit for a few minutes, then spin while squeezing a rag on it. The rag can get caught up in the drill, so pay attention. I did all the bolts with sand paper first, then put the polish on them and finished them as a group, rather than going through the whole process one at a time.

To remove oxidation once every 2 years or so, remove the bolts, place in the drill as mentioned before. Using some superifine steel wool (#000 or #0000), remove oxidation. The wool is more prone to getting caught on the bolt, so be careful. Then polish as above.

I tried painting them with a clear coat. It didn't prevent corrosion at all and dulled the shine, so I don't recommend it.

[ztommyx]

i just chrome mine with the rest of the chrome stuff.

[jona300zx]

Thanks very helpful

nice engine bay tommy

[BigTDogg (MA)]

Thanks man.. i need to replace the ones on the camshaft gear cover.... you know the two plastic things between the intake pipes.....which one are those???

RDZ just started making a kit for those bolts:

[bartZ32tt]

This definately beats checking each bolt myself with my pitch gauge. Subscribed, thanks!

[Ziggy1621]

Old thread I know, but is buying them at Ace cheaper than a kit?

LINK REMOVED

[bartZ32tt]

In my experience, ace doesn't carry many metric bolts (technically screws in this case). Mcmastercar is a very good source for all kinds of hardware/fasteners. Also, ace is usually marked way up, try lowes/home depot.

P.S. I will never recommend someone to buy from that company you linked to. NEVER.

[bartZ32tt]

the ams war has returned

War? Nah, he just asked for input..so I provided mine.

[BigTDogg (MA)]

In my experience, ace doesn't carry many metric bolts (technically screws in this case). Mcmastercar is a very good source for all kinds of hardware/fasteners. Also, ace is usually marked way up, try lowes/home depot.

P.S. I will never recommend someone to buy from that company you linked to. NEVER.

In my experiences, Ace was the only place to carry all the stainless METRIC screws I noted in the original post. HD has stainless, but it's all SAE stuff. There isn't a Lowe's near me. McMaster, Fastenal and MSC and Grainger are great, but usually have minimum order quantities of 25 or more of the same item.

Old thread I know, but is buying them at Ace cheaper than a kit?

LINK REMOVED

Please no linking to that company in this forum. There are plenty of other reputable places which sell Stainless Bolt Kits. Such as:

RDZ Motorsports

Z1 Motorsports

[Ziggy1621]

Ok, so is it better to buy the kit... From whoever, I just googled it... Or from ace?

[bartZ32tt]

Ok, so is it better to buy the kit... From whoever, I just googled it... Or from ace?

Price them out, man. Links were provided..it's up to you to make that assessment.

[Ziggy1621]

Ok, so is it better to buy the kit... From whoever, I just googled it... Or from ace?

Price them out, man. Links were provided..it's up to you to make that assessment.

Well I could do that, but that seems to defeat the purpose of a forum to ask people who have already done it which way is better I'm in the middle of a complete build, so figured I'd ask the nice peeps here to save the couple hours it would take me to price them separately

[kowboydmac]

I priced mine out, but I also didn't get all Stainless Steel.

It's easier to just order the kit, from Z1 & RDZ, than going through all the options via McMaster-Carr, but I like MCM. Saved a couple bucks, and they ship quick.

MCM also sells in small bulk quantities, like 5, 10 ,15 etc. So if you ONLY want bolts for your VG, just get the kits. If you plan on using bolts/nuts/screws for other projects, MCM is your place.

[Ziggy1621]

Sweet brother, thanks!

[300ZXttZMAN]

Its an article now.

http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/metric ... e-bay.html

[canadian booster]

i might actually look into this for the weekend since it's pretty much the cheapest 'upgrade' i can think of *lol*