Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Bolts either side of air filter

The two big bolts that hold the air filter body and sort of the throttle bodies etc. on the front of the engine have started to discolour / corrode and I think there are one or two others that seem to lose their newness rather quickly. Car is only 4 months old so not exactly ideal and I will also ask my dealer...

Does anyone have any recommendations - should I just paint, or can these be replaced with stainless bolts or whatever?

Can be a bit tricky getting hold of some bolts in aircraft grade stainless and 'normal' stainless bolts can be weak compared to high tensile carbon steel.

But not every application needs them, and yours sounds like it doesn't and normal stainless steel would be fine.

What do the bolts go into, and how tight are they? If not super tight you ought to be fine with stainless. You could try asking the dealer, a torque figure will give the game away as to the bolt type needed.

Production wise - I've never met a car manufacturer that routinely used stainless, it's an expensive choice and most engines are under bonnets.

Don't bother painting, it's hard to do a good job, and the paint will either fall off or obstruct a spanner at removal time. (And given my sort of luck - both would be a possibility!)

If you do replave with stainless...and as Martyn says, they should be appropriate for your application as its unlikely to be load bearing.....get a decent grade of stainless AND use the correct lubricant to install to prevent reaction and bonding between the stainless and alloy!

Thanks, gents, I will also ask the dealer. It doesn't look like these bolts need to come off very often, and it seems more to hold things together rather than taking any real load. But we do know how much vibration there is with these engines so better safe than sorry.

Just wiping them over with some black boot polish will probably suffice in the short term!

Be careful removing the bolts - you might even want to get the dealer to do it under warranty and they can sort out the helicoil when the thread comes out with the bolt.

Anyone else got similar issues with the bolts? Road test cars I've seen seem to deteriorate too.

Bit early for me.
I remember IvanFord had a lot of good ideas on fixing things like this, but I can't find the post

Changed mine to stainless without any problems.

I changed mine to stainless as well, they only hold on the air filter backing palte.

Stainless would be quick and easy in that application of course, but there is always the option of getting some nickel plated bolts, if higher tensile strength is required. I suspect these are used throughout the car, with just one or two exceptions anyway.

To be honest, I'm surprised that Morgan use any hardware that will rust, especially as it is all on show.