Can someone tell me what I am supposed to torque the pressure plate bolts to? I have two sources that say 35 ft-lb, but I did that with the stock bolt and it snapped. I got it out and thought about putting a grade 8 in, but the max torque on it is 24, so I know better than that. I can't find what the max torque is for an arp 5/16x18 1" bolt, but I'll be ordering a set I guess. Before I snap one of those off, I want to make sure the two places I'm looking aren't incorrect.

 

Check your torque wrench to make sure of the specs. Snap-on does it for free for their wrenches. It is supposed to be 35 ft lbs. According to Centerforce, use the factory specs with new bolts. Hope this helps.
http://www.boxwrench.net/specs/ford_289_302-5.0.htm

 

Yeah they told me35ft on gread8 too. But it just mushed out the lock washers . So I just tighten it until I felt it was good enough. 5,000 miles no problems yet

 

Randy, that link is the exact one I have printed and placed in the front of my chiltons as my second reference

eatmyjeep, I have thought about that, knowing that max grade 8 torque is 24, just torquing it to 22 or something and letting it go. The problem is that I hate to crater the engine, tranny, car, my legs, and a lot of money over $10 in bolts. If I weren't in such a time crunch (the car has to be on a trailer to move to the new house next Friday and the engine/tranny are out of the car today, shipping takes 3-5 business days) this wouldn't be an issue.

I really, really don't want to install the engine with grade 8's to just hold it for now and then have to repull it to replace 6 pressure plate bolts once at the new house. I know that is the "correct" thing to do though. UGH Shot in the dark, anyone know of a parts place in Dallas Texas that has ARP 5/16-18x1" pressure pressure plate bolts? I can't find one. Jegs has them, but they aren't in Dallas.

 

Ok, need some of the more experienced guys to let me know if I found a true solution. I found some grade 9's at fastenal that are 5/16-18 x 1". The ARP pressure plate bolts state they have a tinsel strength of 170,000 "to provide an extra margin of safety over grade 8". These grade 9's have a tinsel strength of 180,000.

Think they will work as a permanent solution? If ARP is what is highly recommended and these have better stats than an ARP, should I trust them?

 

Wow, Summit and Jegs are just a day off on UPS. I use ARP on everything.

 

A day or a business day? If I order this morning I don't get the part until Monday, and we are moving everything in the house on Thursday and the flat bed shows up Friday morning for the mustang. I'm not sure I could get everything done and put into the car just after work considering all the other packing that still needs to be done.

But, I bought the bolts just an hour ago and have them sitting on my desk. I figure I'll install them like they will stay and if you guys that know better tell me not to use the grade 9's then I'll just end up dropping the tranny and replacing the pressure plate bolts with ARP at a later date. This will at least let me get the engine installed, and only cost me $5 for all 7 (one extra...just in case)

So I have one in the "don't do it category", anyone else have an opinion? Anyone use grade 9 in their car?

 

Sorry, just got home. They both offer a Saturday delivery I think for an extra 10 bucks.