I have been rebuilding my '56 Buick Super and am in the process of upgrading all hardware in the engine bay to stainless. I have had no luck in finding a good vendor for stainless steel fasteners. All catalogs only provide fasteners for specific models such as SB Chevy, Ford , Chrysler etc. What I am looking for is a company that sells fasteners by thread size and length, not model. I am making many modifications and can't use a specific car model to order fasteners. Also, I checked ARP to find a 322 nailhead specific engine bolt kit (rod bolts, head bolts etc) and was unable to find a kit. any suggestions where to obtain the engine bolt kit (standard, not stainless). Any help is appreciated! Andreas
stainless Hi Andreas - Be careful with the stainless - it is not as strong as steel. Check the application before you use it! What part of VA are you in? - Bill
Totally Stainless Inc. 1 800 767 4781 they list nail head kits and kits per item such as oil pan, fuel pump, intake manifold, thermostat housing etc... and they sell by the piece by size also. I dont know the 322 compaired to the 364, 401 or 425 so this may not help. I have dealt with them with no problems.
Everybody, thanks for the great leads you provided! I will contact the various vendors and see if I can get a kit or at least by the fasteners I need individually Andreas
Andreas I have been getting bolts for my 56 at the local industrial bolt supplier. I just bring in the bolt and tell them I want X number in stainless steel. Judd
It can't be overstressed that if you use stainless hardware in applications where you should be using grade 8 bolts, it can be a disaster!! I did some research when collecting hardware from an industrial supplier, and all of their stainless hardware was weaker than standard grade 5 automotive hardware.Frank
Totally Stainless makes bolts that are harder then the grade 8 bolts and you can use them in any application, even as head bolts. If you want to check them out, go to their website, I looked them up on google.........JJT
FWIW: I used grade 8 stainless steel fasteners from "Totaly Stainless" on the 401 in my '55 Special. Everything went (and is going) well, EXCEPT for the exhaust manifold bolts. I torqued them down and after running the car about 50 or 60 miles, I checked everything over. Every single bolt had loosened up. I re-torqued them and checked them again after about 100 miles and again they were loose and one of them had actually fallen out. I was not using the original sheetmetal safety gizmos (sorry, but for the life of me, I can't remember the correct name for the d..n things). I took the stainless bolts out and replaced them with the original bolts (again w/o the locks) and, after 5k miles, haven't had any looseness problems. I assume the stainless must expand a lot more than carbon steel with relatively high high heat, which explained them loosening up. My advice is to NOT use stainless for the exhaust bolts. My 2. -Bob
