Posted by Matt Wilson [172.69.70.14] on Friday, December 27, 2019 at 21:16:55 :
In Reply to: Re: Connecting Rod Bolt Questions posted by Vaughn [172.69.22.5] on Friday, December 27, 2019 at 13:28:06 :
Well, therein lies the problem. These bolts area for a 265, which has a completely different type of bolt than any others I've every seen. I've searched high and low for new or NOS replacements, and there are none to be found. I did get some used ones from Matt at VPW, which are better-looking than the ones I had before, but I've still been holding out some hope that I could figure out how to adapt some aftermarket bolts (such as ARP) to fit the 265 rods, but I just don't think it's going to be workable. They just don't have anything close enough.
In the end, I'll probably use the ones I've got, and they'll probably be fine, but "probably" doesn't feel all that great when I've spent several thousand dollars on the rest of the engine. There are a lot of guys who absolutely will not reuse connecting rod bolts - but I bet they haven't worked on a 265 before. These are guys who are used to working on small block Ford, Chevy and Dodge engines, and you can find these parts readily.
Anyway, I suppose I'm mainly just looking for some reassurance that reusing these bolts is not that much of a risk. I figure if it's been pretty common for others to reuse them on 265's, or on 230's or 251's, then that'll give me a bit more comfort.
It also would be good to know if others have bothered polishing dings and scrapes out of their bolts, particularly under the heads.
I think (hope) I'm really going to like this 265 when I finally get it back in my truck, but these kinds of things definitely present hurdles for me in the meantime. Maybe I'm worrying too much over it, but I've always felt that the devil's in the details, and I've had problems before when I ignored detail-oriented things like this.
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