Stainless fasteners any good?

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pishta

pishta

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304 stainless fasteners. They are pretty, but are they strong? As bought in a master set (fuel pump, intake, headers, water pump, valve covers, distributor, carb studs) Saw some LA kits for 27 bucks at the swap meet, looked cheaper than piecing them out at the fastener store (seeing intake bolts with Home Depot markings on them is weak).
 
You are correct about stainless not being as strong as other metals. I think that you should be fine on everything that you listed. The only time that I would be concerned is using them on load bearing parts like brakes and suspension parts.
 
I got a ton of bolts at the fall fling for 7 bucks a pound. I use them as fasteners on everything except what badart said......weight bearing stuff.

The best thing to do is put the bolt in a drill and run sandpaper from 180-320-800-1500. Then a quick pass with the buffer and they look great. I even buff out the washers. Beats paying an arm and leg for the chromed crap that eventually flakes and rusts.
 
The stuff ARP makes is excellent but not all that cheap..but you get what you pay for..
 
I got a really clean set from mopar performance that are polished stainless with mopar emblems stamped in the heads.
 
Stainless is a lot more fun to remove if it gets broken.
Sealant like rtv doesn't take to it very well either.
The only place on and engine I have ever used stainless is the 2 bolts in the thermostat housing.
 
stroked 340 said:
The stuff ARP makes is excellent but not all that cheap..but you get what you pay for..
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Exactly.....I have just ordered an ARP 12 point s/s bolt set for my 318.
$157 USD......verses $27.....hhmmmm......what ya reckon?
 
RedFish said:
Stainless is a lot more fun to remove if it gets broken.
Sealant like rtv doesn't take to it very well either.
The only place on and engine I have ever used stainless is the 2 bolts in the thermostat housing.
Click to expand...

The thing to remember with s/s is slow drill speed with heaps of pressure and some WD40 or similar. Cobalt HSS drill bits help too.
 
cjh said:
The thing to remember with s/s is slow drill speed with heaps of pressure and some WD40 or similar. Cobalt HSS drill bits help too.
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HSS (high speed steel), cobalt, and carbide are different drills, each progressively harder.

Slow speed applies to all steels, the harder the slower, so stainless (depending on which one) can be drilled a bit faster than others.

WD-40 does work but a real cutting oil is better.

Hopefully you won't have this problem. Using anti-seize or Permatex part 2B sealant on the threads will help a lot! The part 2B never fully hardens so it's easy to get hardware back out.
 
Another thing is when installing SS with nuts and into cast iron use anti seize to prevent galling the threads.
 
Badart said:
You are correct about stainless not being as strong as other metals. I think that you should be fine on everything that you listed. The only time that I would be concerned is using them on load bearing parts like brakes and suspension parts.
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There are different grades of stainless. 300 series(303, 304, etc) stainless steel is almost as strong as grade 5 steel. I agree with Badart above. A stainless nut on stainless bolt can gall and lock up so bad you have to cut the nut off, so you have to use antiseize. I pretty much use antiseize on everything outside of the engine anymore. Don't even think about using stainless to replace grade 8 bolts or any suspension bolt. 17-4 stainless is real strong and real expensive. I use them for exhaust. I hate it when cheap bolts rust themselves together. Sorry, I've worked on too many Chevy's in the past.
 
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