During the upgrade of the engine I looked into, and bought, so uprated bolt for the connecting rods. These were not to allow for a higher rev limit as the cams wouldn’t really need to go much beyond 7k rpm. They were more for my peace of mind. My reasoning was that although the engine was fine up to 7k, it probably wasn’t designed to do it as often as it does in the 7.
I never got around to fitting the bolts during the engine upgrade as I was keen to get the car on the road – it took long enough as it was, without further delays. I therefore postponed the bolt upgrade to 2005/06. The job was quite straightforward. The sump was drained, the bolts removed and removed from the block. I then worked on one cap at a time, carefully slackening off the bolts and then removing one at a time and replacing it with one of the new ones, having checked for burrs under the on the cap face and coating the thread and under head in Copper grease. The new bolts were then tightened down in three stages to the specified torque.
A new gasket was fitted in the groove in the sump, a couple of fresh beads of silicone sealant applied and the sump was lifted back into place. It isn’t the easiest thing to bolt into place – the mushroom shape of the sump that allows a 5lt capacity means that nearly all the bolts are obstructed. Add to this the fact that the alternator and various chassis tubes all did their best to get in the way.

Northbridge Motorsport

Bolt Set Ready To Be Fitted	All Fitted In Place	Close Up 1	Close Up 2