Hi all,
No one seemed to respond to the list with personal experiences of
stainless
steel hardware so I'll blab a bit about it. (I haven't blabbed for at least
2 months now.)
I started researching and buying stainless steel bolts, nuts and
washers
for my engine compartment about 2 years ago. Keep in mind that there are
different kinds of stainless steel, just as with non-corrosion resistant
metals, and each of them has different properties. The most important
property is the strength (correlating to the grade of the bolt). Triumph
used a lot of grade 5 even in situations where it wasn't necessary. The air
filter bolts are a perfect example of this.
But to make life easy for those who don't care to research it to the
hilt I
can say that I replaced everything that didn't have a high-strength
requirement (read suspension hardware, internal engine bolts, driveline,
etc.) with stainless steel. I would suspect that all the bolts I used are
316 or 304 (the most commonly available), though I don't know that for a
fact. Some suppliers have material properties available while others don't.
The reality is that many of the bolts on the car do not have truly high
strength requirements and therefore it doesn't matter as much which
stainless steel bolt you use (for me as long as it is of high corrosion
resistance it is OK- read 300 series) as long as they aren't going to fail.
But you need to use your intelligence here. Air filter bolts: OK to replace
with whatever. Same with screws holding the carburetor parts together.
Lower suspension arms to trunnions: bad idea. Also, if you wind up using
stainless steel bolts with stainless steel nuts in high torque situations,
it might be valuable to read up a little about stainless steel bolt
properties and lubrication. I don't consider 50 ft-lbs and under
high-torque.
Not all bolts are created equally. The bolts that hold the suspension
arms
to the trunnions, for example, clearly need to be of high strength. It is
"possible" to get stainless bolts that will meet the requirements for these
locations, but not easily and not cheaply. Martensitic Stainless steel can
be used to make rolled-thread bolts but is expensive and the corrosion
resistance is often sacrificed (relative to other stainless steels). So I
skipped those places and simply used high-strength regular steel bolts.
I love the look of the car even more now than before. The carbs took
about
a month of research alone to find all the different head types and threads
needed. And I don't even want to tell you how much I spent.
I definitely don't worry about corrosion as much. Maybe it's just
psychological but I don't dread taking things apart as much as before. I've
driven the car hard for about 1000 miles and have had no problems with
anything. That's long enough to be able to say that the initial bolt
application strength was adequate but not long enough to say that they are
sufficient with long term cyclical loading. My car will probably never get
to that point (long terms cyclical loading).
I can't think of anything else. Have fun. Oh, and prices for the
exact
same bolt at different shops can vary drastically. So check around.
Sincerely,
Dave Herbert
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