Question About Intercooler Bolts - NO, Not What Size Are They

[vipergts281]

Pulled my blower to fix a leak in the cooling system...for the 3rd time.

Went to screw the intercooler back to the blower with NEW Ford bolts and they snapped. My rented torque wrench must be WAY off because I had it set at 18 inch/lbs. It never clicked to warn me.

Having trouble finding replacements that are NOT the Ford ones. Well, local replacements, I found a set online but shipping is 3 days. I was hoping to get this back on the car asap.

These are the ones I found - VMP Performance

I went to Home Depot and found these (click here), but they are not grade 8 and they are Zinc plated.

Do I NEED grade 8?
Do I 100% need to torque them to exactly 53 inch/lbs or can I do it by feel...until they are snug?

Anyone know where I can find M5 x 16mm grade 8 SS bolts and have them over-nighted...or even 2 day?

Worst case I guess I'll grab the ones from VMP and have to wait for shipping.

Someone on here said they got theirs from Fastenal, but the ones I see listed aren't grade 8. No luck on McMaster-Carr either.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

 

[TRBO VNM]

Do you have an ace or true value? I always use stainless sockethead bolts with washers and blue Loctite and I get the bolts from there. I don't like Lowes or Home Depot for stuff like this. Mine never have a nice selection. Ace/true value have a great specialty section for a lot of stuff.

 

[hotcobra03]

How tight?

Thought these were nm/ inch

which is hand tight with 1/4 inch drive tools..

lower intake is like this..many over kill it and snap bolts..



IM all for grade 8 but here I can see the need..

the rtv will hold intercooIer tight. .these bolts will hold till rtv dries..

A lite locktite is all that i use.. (nail polish)

 

[vipergts281]

Do you have an ace or true value? I always use stainless sockethead bolts with washers and blue Loctite and I get the bolts from there. I don't like Lowes or Home Depot for stuff like this. Mine never have a nice selection. Ace/true value have a great specialty section for a lot of stuff.

There is a True Value near me. I'm heading there later today.

Are the ones you get grade 8?

Do I need grade 8?

Thank you.

How tight?

Thought these were nm/ inch

which is hand tight with 1/4 inch drive tools..

lower intake is like this..many over kill it and snap bolts..



IM all for grade 8 but here I can see the need..

the rtv will hold intercooIer tight. .these bolts will hold till rtv dries..

A lite locktite is all that i use.. (nail polish)

The How To thread on here says tighten first to 18 inch/lbs then to 53 inch/lbs.

And I assume above you meant to say CAN'T instead of "...but here I can see the need"??

Thank you.

 

[hotcobra03]

Lower intake section of manual..

2 nm
than
25 nm..

.
2nm converts 18 inch lb
25nm converts to 18 foot lb

53? Did u do 53 ft lbs ?

53 inch converts to 4 something foot lbs

 

[SlowSVT]

I don't know what alloy Ford choose for the IC bolts and why (maybe some can clear this up for me). It is not a highly stressed area, the steel is very brittle and are prone to snapping. I don't think they are grade 12.9 (metric equivalent to grade 8+) I think they are hardened to somewhere around 60 Rockwell C scale (brittle). I would think grade 8 (overkill) or grade 5 would be fine in that location.

For high quality fasteners go to an industrial supply, McMaster-Carr or Grainger. No telling where a hardware store gets their fasteners most likely from China.

Use blue locktite or better yet safety wire them.

 

[vipergts281]

Lower intake section of manual..

2 nm
than
25 nm..

.
2nm converts 18 inch lb
25nm converts to 18 foot lb

53? Did u do 53 ft lbs ?

53 inch converts to 4 something foot lbs

I set the inch/lbs wrench to 18. It snapped. Never heard a click, which is why I kept turning. Hindsight, if I had a good feel for how tight they should be, I would have stopped turning before they had a chance to break.

I don't know what alloy Ford choose for the IC bolts and why (maybe some can clear this up for me). It is not a highly stressed area, the steel is very brittle and are prone to snapping. I don't think they are grade 12.9 (metric equivalent to grade 8+) I think they are hardened to somewhere around 60 Rockwell C scale (brittle). I would think grade 8 (overkill) or grade 5 would be fine in that location.

For high quality fasteners go to an industrial supply, McMaster-Carr or Grainger. No telling where a hardware store gets their fasteners most likely from China.

Use blue locktite or better yet safety wire them.

I got some bolts at True Value.


They are stainless steel, hex cap, and have A2-70 on them.

They're not grade 8, but according to the person who worked there, they are a step below grade 8 but above grade 5.

Do you think these will work?

Sound similar to what TRBO VNM suggested, minutes the socket head.

 

[TRBO VNM]

As stated in your other thread, grade 8 is for standard bolts, not metric.

These do not have much torq on them at all, you don't need grade 10.9 in metric.

And I can take a pic, but I have a helm manual and under the Charge Air Cooler section it does show 53 in-lb for the intercooler bolts. I would never do 18 ft-lb on them. That is way too much.

 

[cj428mach]

One thing about grade 8 or metric equivalent is if you do break one of them bolts drilling it out won't be fun.

 

[vipergts281]

I never tried 18 foot/lbs, I was doing inch/lbs.

Thanks for the info on the bolt grades.

 

[vipergts281]

One thing about grade 8 or metric equivalent is if you do break one of them bolts drilling it out won't be fun.

I bet.

The stock Ford one was easy. Drilled a pilot hole and then used an extractor and it came right out.

 

[vipergts281]

What about the 10 lower intake bolts, can I reuse them?

How about zinc ones from a True Value. They have ones that are 8.8...looks like the stock ones say 8.8 on them.

 

[TRBO VNM]

The lower intake bolts to heads you can reuse. People have snapped them but I think that was over torq and I have some other theories of why, but not getting into that. Those are 89 in-lb

 

[vipergts281]

Thank you. That's what I thought, just wanted to confirm.

 

[oldmodman]

I always throw the Ford bolts in the trash.

I bought a bunch of them from McMaster Carr ten years ago. I just make sure that I use a liberal amount of red threadlocker when I install them.

Just realize that the red threadlocker is nearly permanent. I use a torch to soften the goo if I ever have to remove them again.

The McMaster Carr bolts are Grade 8 equivalent. I use a Snap On torque wrench and they don't need to be very tight.

 

[Posi]

If you just snapped 1 intercooler bolt and it's on the length direction and not the width it won't hurt a thing to leave 1 out. Air will take the path of least resistance so it'll never know.

 

[SlowSVT]

I set the inch/lbs wrench to 18. It snapped. Never heard a click, which is why I kept turning. Hindsight, if I had a good feel for how tight they should be, I would have stopped turning before they had a chance to break.

I got some bolts at True Value.


They are stainless steel, hex cap, and have A2-70 on them.

They're not grade 8, but according to the person who worked there, they are a step below grade 8 but above grade 5.

Do you think these will work?

Sound similar to what TRBO VNM suggested, minutes the socket head.

The bolts you got from the hardware store are fine but I would be a little leary of the stainless steel in aluminum long term.

 

[SlowSVT]

If you just snapped 1 intercooler bolt and it's on the length direction and not the width it won't hurt a thing to leave 1 out. Air will take the path of least resistance so it'll never know.

Posi for the life of me I don't understand the logic why Ford installed such brittle bolts in the IC

yea 1 missing bolt won't hurt but make sure it can't work its way loose and fall into the lower and ends-up getting sucked into the intake :uh oh:

 

[vipergts281]

Thanks everyone. I got the car put back together about an hour ago. Started right up. But...

I think it's still leaking.

I pressure tested the system with air and it lost pressure over time. I assume there should be ZERO loss? Here are the results...

Start - 17 lbs
1 minute - 16
2:30 - 15
3:40 - 14
5:15 - 13
6:50 - 12
8:35 - 11
10:00 - 10
12:20 - 9
14:20 - 8

As you can see it lost a pound in the first minute. 14 minutes in it slowed down to about 1 pound every 2 minutes. I stopped checking after that.

Any input? Am I shit out of luck after all that work?

Obviously I don't want to put any fluid in there with a leak. Somehow the car has survived that twice already. The last time it leaked - Nothing happened for a few days of normal driving, but the first time I went WOT the car struggled/bogged and black smoke poured out the exhaust.

 

[Zemedici]

Have you looked at the intercooler itself? Have that pressure tested. Bet that's your point of failure