A couple questions on Pontiac specific engine bolts/fasteners
 

So I am putting together a 400 for my 81 TA currently in paint jail. I bought the short block together with no oil pan or pump. So I am not just gonna slap heads on it and run it. I wanna at least check the clearances and so forth. Probably like the rest you I have bins of extra engine bolts. So I made a nice set of timing cover bolts, intake bolts, and head bolts. These mostly all were used only once. So my questions are
1. I forgot about the oil pump bolts and think I found two, they have lock washers on them, and will protrude into the block about 1/2" or so. They had two letters on the bolts head. These sound correct? If I wanted to put new lock washers on there is there any specific kind? Grade 8, hardened, etc?
2. The head bolts I have no problem re-using, they are not the same years, and have different head markings. As long as they are the same three lengths that shouldn't be an issue? I think they go in the block about an inch.
3. When I took off the nut on the rod bolt I did not measure the foot pounds and I can't tell if the are stock rod bolts or not. They say CP on them on top. How do you tell? I cant imagine some one re-using stock rod bolts. Right now they are all torqued to 45#. The short block was built in 2004 according to the bearings. The mains had .002 and the rods have .0025 at 45# of torque.
Thanks in advance!!!

Fairly sure the oil pump bolt is the same quality as the main bolts, therefore essentially "Grade 8".

The way I remember it, the critical engine bolts were listed in the GM "Standard Parts Catalog" as being made from "M300" steel. Less-critical bolts may have been listed as "M280".

https://www.carpentertechnology.com/alloy-finder/300M

Wild guess with no evidence: The steel used by GM for critical fasteners is as good as the steel ARP uses. No promises on heat-treatment, though. ARP makes a big deal about heat-treating BEFORE the threads are rolled.

Interesting. Its crazy the rabbit holes you go down on the internet. Now I'm going to read about nuts and bolts for the next week.

When putting together my bottom end, I reused the grade 5 oil pump bolts from the last incarnation of my engine with lock washers and blue Loctite. Looking at old threads, some folks don't use the lock washers and prefer grade 8.

Old thread with some opinions: https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...d.php?t=628147

I have always just used standard hardware store grade 8 bolts and lock washers on oil pumps.

There's four books I know of that are worth reading.

The best of the bunch is by Carroll Smith.
https://www.amazon.com/Fasteners-Plu...=1T0JPZ07QRTMH

But then, anything Carroll Smith wrote is worth studying.


Mike Mavrigian also has one.
https://www.amazon.com/High-Performa...=26OZ56DTEYOZF

As does Forbes Aird
https://www.amazon.com/High-Performa...=3VWXT3MTJE4ZI

And one by John Deere. Fairly agricultural. Not really recommended unless you can read it for free.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/08...?ie=UTF8&psc=1


...and there's a fifth book, which I can't lay my hands on right now to remind me of the title or author. Better than the John Deer book, not as good as the Carroll Smith book.

Original engines I have stripped down had Grade 5 bolts with no lock washers. Seems like other stuff I tear down has broken lock washers and loose bolts so GM probably left them off for a reason.