Thanks Hurricane. James Eickman's book also states that pre '56 Y-Blocks used equal length bolts on the top row. I know that my engine in my '55 Monterey is original and based on the bolt length in my doner engine, it must be pre '56 also.




My wife said she would divorce me if I bought another car. It scared me so bad I only bought 3 last month!

Monterrey:

I believe that '54-'55 Ys had same length long bolts in all upper holes.  I believe '56 they changed, and apparently in the last of production they changed again.

John

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

JM says that the late model Y's had the same length long head bolts.  Dont know what he means by late model, but the last 2 63-64 292s I have dissassembled both had the two longer bolts on the ends, and both sets were grade 8.  All the pre 63 Y's would have had the longer bolts on the end.  FYI the ARP head bolts are all the same length on the top row.

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.

My engine has all the same length top head bolts and the engine I got to get the heads off of also had all the same length bolts. Were both of these engines wrong?

I read somewhere about certain years having different bolt lengths than others.

My wife said she would divorce me if I bought another car. It scared me so bad I only bought 3 last month!

It's the way it was originally equipped. The cut for the dowels removes about 1/4" of the threads. The 1/4" extra length gets those threads back for proper engagement.


Lawrenceville, GA

THANKS Charlie. All the top (long) bolts that I removed were the same length.4.0625". Why do I need longer ones now?

My wife said she would divorce me if I bought another car. It scared me so bad I only bought 3 last month!

Grade 8 will be fine. The ones Mummert sells really aren't needed until you're a good bit above stock power levels. Make sure to get the 1/4" longer bolts for the ends of the heads. The alignment dowels are in line with these bolts. About 1/4" of threads is cut out of the block for these dowels. You will have 10 long bolts. 4 should be 1/4" longer than the other 6. Anyone know the lengths?


Lawrenceville, GA

Guys, I appreciate all the responses, but my question to you is:



1. Do I need to buy the bolts that Mummert sells?



or



2. Can I use grade 8 bolts as sold in hardware stores?



+++++I am not reusing my 53 year old head bolts+++++

My wife said she would divorce me if I bought another car. It scared me so bad I only bought 3 last month!

I bought some studs.  Yeah overkill but what the heck.  I sure do empathize with 55monterey's feelings.  My thinking was "grade 8 bolts, cant get much better than that".  You think things are ready to go with a final assembly, and another C note pops up.   

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.

I was browsing through Mummert's sight and found an interesting tidbit about common mistakes made in reference to head bolts,although the five shorter bolts by the spark plugs are the same length,the ones by the rocker assy are different lengths;the outer edge ones are 1/4" longer and if put in the wrong location will cause a blown head gasket.Now i'm not suggesting you should use the old head bolts,i'm only saying that is what I would do because i had built a number of engines over the years and never had a head bolt failure.If you are uncomfortable with the old bolts then by all means  purchase new ones