tysouthwick Posted July 4, 2010 Report Posted July 4, 2010 Im am slowly working on my truck and I was looking at some of the head bolts and they are starting to rust and some are corroded and I was wondering if you can use grade 8 hardware bolts or if there is another place I can get some, But remember I am on a budget and I dont want to be completely robbed dry Quote
james curl Posted July 4, 2010 Report Posted July 4, 2010 I used grade 8 bolts and hardened washers. I bought them at the tractor store. I have about 10,000 miles on them without any problems. I have since bought a bolt set for my P-15 which I paid $69.90 for them from Headbolts .com which included shipping. The bolts came from crosby machine 20 mirona rd portsmouth NH 03801 You can google www.headbolts.com and choose the correct set for your car. Grade 8 bolts from tractor supply are a whole lot cheaper. The grade 8 bolts are not reduced diameter and shouldered as the original bolts are. Quote
jd52cranbrook Posted July 4, 2010 Report Posted July 4, 2010 You can get grade 8 bolts, washers at any hardware store. Can even get most sizes in studs too for that matter. Quote
greg g Posted July 4, 2010 Report Posted July 4, 2010 (edited) Search head bolts, quite a bit of discussion and several posts of Chevy pieces that are nealry spitting image of stock and relatively cheap. I think I paid 89 cents a piece for the oes I bought. I also put hadware grade 8's in my 218 and put 5k miles one it without problems. Edited July 4, 2010 by greg g Quote
james curl Posted July 4, 2010 Report Posted July 4, 2010 It takes two complete sets of Chevy V8 head bolts to get enough short ones to do a flathead if you can not buy individual head bolts. Some places sell the Chevy head bolts in a blister pack as a kit. You only need the short side head bolts from the Chevy V8. Quote
greg g Posted July 4, 2010 Report Posted July 4, 2010 My guy ordered them up by the each, the 25 on the box indicates the full count in the box but I only bought 21. Quote
Flatie46 Posted July 4, 2010 Report Posted July 4, 2010 I bought some for my sons car at Lowes, they've got a pretty good selection can't remeber the price though. Anthor place you might check is Fastenal, again I don't know what the price would be. Quote
Don Coatney Posted July 5, 2010 Report Posted July 5, 2010 As you can see in Gregs picture the original head bolt (center) and the shiverlay head bolt (right) are undercut in the shank. This is done so they dont rust solid to the head. The hardware grade 8 bolt (left) does not have this undercut shank. I personally would not recommend using a hardware grade 8 bolt for this reason. Quote
Flatie46 Posted July 5, 2010 Report Posted July 5, 2010 I did not know that's what the undercut was for Don. Thanks for the schooling, wish I'd have known this before we done the head gasket on my sons car. We put regular grade 8 back in it cause some of em looked rough. If the head has to come back off I guess I'll change em out. Quote
Powerhouse Posted July 6, 2010 Report Posted July 6, 2010 I bought some grade 8 from fastenal...didn't use them though. I used studs from VPW instead. The Fastenal products were not all straight...I had a machinist at work help me out by turning the shaft down a bit to be like the stockers. He said most of them were not straight. So I didn't use them after all that. Quote
Flatie46 Posted July 6, 2010 Report Posted July 6, 2010 I bought some grade 8 from fastenal...didn't use them though. I used studs from VPW instead. The Fastenal products were not all straight...I had a machinist at work help me out by turning the shaft down a bit to be like the stockers. He said most of them were not straight. So I didn't use them after all that. I hate to hear you had bad luck with Fastenal. We use them alot where I work and quality has never been an issue. This past spring they even give our maintenance dept. skybox seats at the Bristol race. Now if that's not customer appreciation I don't know what is. Quote
Powerhouse Posted July 6, 2010 Report Posted July 6, 2010 We use them all the time too...must have been an off batch or something. Quote
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