I need the size and length of bolts to mount my 327 up to the stand. Don't have a bolt to go by with me right now. Anyone happen to know so I can swing by the hardware store on the way home? please?
Get bolts that are long enough so the threads stick out about 5/8" from the stand, into the engine. Put washers between the bolt head and the engine stand as needed to keep them from sticking out too far. Also if the engine was not recently removed from a car, clean the threads in the block with a thread chaser or tap first, often the holes get filled up with crap from the engine sitting around.
Or, pick-up a length of "threaded rod" and cut to the lengths you need. Thread chaser; YES! TAP; NO!! A tap will cut the thread OVERSIZE!
No it won't. A tap is designed to cut threads to the right size...is there some magic that makes them cut the threads too big in an already tapped hole, but not in an untapped hole? why when I run a tap thru the bolt holes on an engine block, for example, no metal comes out with the tap?
CHASING EXISTING THREADS A VERY BIG No, No - using regular taps and dies to "Chase Threads!" Don't do it! You are destroying the strength of the thread!! As well as the "fit." Once a thread has been "cut" and a fastener has been used in/on the thread (and loaded/torqued) the "peaks" of the original thread "roll over." IF a regular tap or die is used to clean this hole/bolt again; it starts to "cut" the thread AGAIN; (the "rolled peaks") only now the thread becomes oversized. (in it's axial direction) Try running a regular TAP thru an old nut; and a regular DIE over an old bolt that have been "loaded"; (used) put them back together again, and you will see what I mean! The ONLY way to "chase" existing threads is to use "THREAD CHASER TAPS and DIES!" The CHASER taps are slightly smaller outside diameter than REGULAR taps. CHASER Dies are slightly larger inside diameter. In a case where a regular tap is run into an existing thread - one that has been used and "loaded" - and NO chips come out; that thread is ALREADY OVERSIZED. Someone "chased" the threads with a regular tap before you did.
so....let me get this straight....when I put a bolt into a threaded hole, and tighten it, somehow the threaded bolt hole magically gets SMALLER???????????? this does not make sense