Hey guys,

i had a real job getting the intake off my 5.7 the other week, one bolt at the back and one are the front would not come out so i had to actually cut away at the bolt to make it square in order to get my grips on and they eventually came out.

I dont particularly want to use the torx bolts when i put it back on, id rather get some better regular style bolts.

ive been all over ebay looking at ARP bolts but nearly all of them only go upto 1985 blocks, i never thought it would be that hard to buy a pack of 12 bolts !

Can anyone point me in the right direction ?

 

Go to any engineering supply or nut and bolt shop and buy Allen head cap screws ; they don't strip the heads out like the stock ones
Take a stock Torx head bolts as a sample

 

or go to the hardware store and get yourself some good old hex head 3/8-16 bolts and call it a day.

To be honest, ANY style (torx, allen, hex) bolt will work just fine if you don't wait 20 years to remove them, or if you use a little never-sieze. These bolts don't get torqued to an excessive value, so the difficulty that you encountered is probably due to them never having been out before. The ones that go into the lifter valley should have some sort of thread sealant on them, which will help prevent galvanic corrosion, and the outer ones that don't go into the lifter valley should have a little bit of never-seize on them, which will also prevent galvanic corrosion. If so, you shouldn't have any problem getting them out next time.

 

Yeah you could tell it had been on there since new, and they were really rusty when i did get them out, i just feel quite lucky i didnt snap them

So 3/8-16 bolts then, i will have a look round and see what i can find.

 

that's the most common bold size in the history of bolts. You'll find anything you want in that size. Personally, I like the stock torx bolts because they have a large head and they're easily accessible with the torx bit. If I were to change to a hex head style bolt, I'd use a black oxide flange hex because they look the most like stock hardware.

 

I used ARP in the past. Dont know why you are having trouble finding them. Makes no difference what year motor, bolt holes are all the same. Just the 4 center ones angle changes but thats no big deal as long as intake angle matches

 

I cant find any on ebay that fit, the other ARP ones say they work unto 1985 engines, and ive contacted a few sellers to see if they had any for a TPI and they all said no :/ if its just a standard bolt size though then theres no problem really

 

Yeah its just a standard thread size and all you need is the correct length which should be same as any other sbc manifold.
Arp 134-2001 basically is universal intake manifold bolts and worked fine for me

 

Ah, well if that ARP set will work fine i think i will go for a set of them then and be done with it