RockAuto Marine Parts

There’s still time to get your boat back out on the water this summer with RockAuto’s expanded marine catalog! We now offer a large selection of marine parts from the brands you trust at competitive prices. You'll now find parts for popular inboard and outboard boats and engines, including Mercruiser, Mercury, Volvo Penta, Evinrude, Yamaha, and many more:

• Autolite and NGK Spark Plugs
• Fram Filters
• United Ignition Spark Plug Wire Sets
• Delco/Remy Alternators, Starters, and Tilt/Trim Motors
• Standard Motor Products Ignition and Electrical parts
• Cardone Water Pumps
• Victor Reinz Gaskets
• ATK Marine Long Blocks
• Autoline Carburetors, Fuel Injectors, and Distributors
• Carter Fuel Pumps
• And more…

Visit our Marine tab to find the parts you need in the same easy-to-navigate format as our automobile catalog. The boating season is already too short—let RockAuto help bring your boat back to life and keep it running strong.

Robbins Auto Top

RockAuto is now offering convertible tops from Robbins Auto Top! Robbins Auto Top has long been known for quality throughout the industry and has received the prestigious Ford Q1 Quality certification. Robbins uses the highest quality toppings, original style components, and best workmanship to manufacture their convertible tops, glass and plastic windows, tonneau covers, top boots, headliners and accessories.

Some of the features and techniques that make Robbins Tops the best in the industry:

• Factory Designs Duplicated or Improved: Robbins duplicates factory designs, and improves upon them when necessary. Added reinforcements, better heat sealing processes with Pffaf hot air welders, and other manufacturing techniques help to make the best quality products.
• Exact Patterns: The best fitting tops start with the best patterns which are made possible by a computer controlled high speed Gerber CNC cutting machine.
• Materials: Robbins uses original materials or better suited replacements for their products. Each material is made to strict specifications and tested to ensure it meets the standards of Robbins.
• Quality Control: Robbins began as a trim shop and all convertible top patterns go through continual R&D where products are installed and tested for fit and appearance. Fabrics used are heat seal and stretch tested and thread is tested on critical materials.

Whether the top for your American, European, or Japanese car is worn, damaged, or has a broken window, RockAuto has the Robbins Auto Top replacement needed for your convertible. Find your Robbins convertible top needs in the Body-Exterior category of the RockAuto Catalog.

Forum of the Month

The Classic Oldsmobile forum is dedicated to Oldsmobile’s and their owners. By joining our community, at no cost, you will have access to start new topics, reply to conversations, privately message other members (PM), respond to polls, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today and become a part of the Classic Oldsmobile Family!

If you are the administrator or member of a forum and you would like to see your website featured in an upcoming newsletter and receive a discount code to share with your members, contact cynthia@rockauto.com.

Repair Mistakes & Blunders

The year was 1979, early summer. The car was a 1968 Pontiac Firebird. I could barely wait for the school year to end, as I needed free time to install a new camshaft, a set of 400 heads, and replace an aging two barrel carburetor with a Carter 4 barrel that I had scored on a high school student budget. I had gone so far as to purchase a bar type torque wrench so that I could precisely torque my newly machined cylinder heads onto the motor.

Some things are just not meant to be...

After bolting the heads in place, I decided to test the engine compression. The problem was, I hadn't installed the push rods prior to this test! As my buddy was cranking the engine over, I was witnessing readings of 1 to 20 psi...probably a good number considering that the valves weren't opening. My impulsive solution was to tighten the head bolts a little tighter and try again....and again when the previous re-tightening didn't improve the compression test results. By the time my re-torquing was complete, the cylinder head surfaces most likely resembled cast iron waffles!

After installing the push rods (and another re-torquing of the head bolts) the motor ran terribly for about three weeks until it blew up in a blaze of glory with more antifreeze in the pan than oil.

Ah, to be young and totally impulsive again.

Tom in Connecticut

Tell us about your most infamous auto repair blunder or unconventional fix. Use your woe to help others avoid similar mistakes or share off-the-wall solutions that worked (at least for a while!). Please email your story to flamur@rockauto.com. Include your mailing address and if you would like a RockAuto T-Shirt (please let us know your shirt size) or Hat if we publish your story. See the T-Shirts and Hats under Tools & Universal Parts in the catalog. The story will be credited using only your first name and your vague geographic location (state, province, country, continent, etc.) so you can remain semi-anonymous!

Automotive Trivia

QR codes now appear on everything from RockAuto ads to political campaign signs. What was the original purpose for the QR code?

A. Denso Wave, a subsidiary of Toyota, created the QR code in 1994 to better track auto parts inventory.
B. Euro NCAP created the QR code in 2001 to be able to store and read crash history data displayed on the surface of crash test dummies.
C. Paccar made QR codes in 1998 so customers could store and retrieve maintenance histories on DAF, Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks.

Answer below

My Garage Experiment

I tend to put anti-seize compound on most bolts. After struggling to remove a frozen fastener, I want to make sure that it is easier to remove the next time. I have read that the problem with smearing anti-seize compound on nuts and bolts is that it makes it too easy to over-tighten even using a torque wrench. The torque specifications in repair manuals are usually written for fasteners that are relatively clean or “dry.”

The right torque is essential for the success of many repair jobs. Cylinder head bolts sometimes have a torque specification that requires both a torque wrench and a torque angle meter to measure a subsequent rotation of the fastener by a set number of degrees. Fel-Pro recommends that a “torque-to-yield” cylinder head bolt never be reused because “chances are great that it has already exceeded its elasticity barrier and won’t spring back to properly seal the engine.” What if even the most careful torque measurements on new parts using the best tools is thrown out the window by a dab of anti-seize compound?

I decided to clear off a corner of my workbench for a quasi-scientific investigation! I cleaned a new bolt, washer and nut to make them “dry”, clamped the nut in a vise and marked the position of the bolt head at points between 25 to 65 ft. lbs. of applied torque (34 to 88 Nm). Then I put anti-seize compound on the bolt and measured the torque necessary to bring the bolt head back to the dry positions. With the anti-seize compound, I found that 31% to 44% less torque was needed to turn the bolt head to the dry position. For example, 45 ft. lbs. of torque on the anti-seize coated bolt turned the bolt head as far as 65 ft. lbs. of torque on the dry bolt. The dry/anti-seize conversion ratio became very non-linear when I put 65 ft. lbs. (88 Nm) of torque on the anti-seize covered bolt. The bolt head turned far past (remember this is quasi-scientific!) the dry 65 ft. lb. mark indicating that the bolt head was probably now cutting into the washer and/or the bolt was stretching.

After my experiment, I looked at bolt manufacturer data and found they generally recommend roughly 25% less torque (compared to dry) on fasteners lubricated with anything (oil, grease, etc.) and roughly 40% less torque on fasteners coated in anti-seize compound.

I am still a big fan of anti-seize, but I am going to more carefully consider the torque specifications for each bolt. Many, if not most, of the bolts I install are hard to access and impossible to get a torque wrench on. Most fasteners have likely been inadvertently lubed by the penetrating oil I used to help remove them, transmission fluid, the grease on my gloves, etc. With those hard to get to bolts, I can only use the manufacturer torque specification as a ball park figure to calibrate the pressure I feel in my hand and wrist when I turn the wrench. Manufacturer torque specs in the repair manuals are usually a range rather than an exact number so now at least I know to usually aim for the low end of the torque range.

I will forego the anti-seize compound and/or follow the part manufacturer’s installation instructions when I work on torque sensitive sealing applications like cylinder heads. It is worthwhile to remove more parts so the torque wrench has access and make an extra effort to clean fasteners and mounting holes. I will also be more cautious when bolting together dissimilar metals like aluminum to steel. My garage experiment showed me how easy it would be to inadvertently distort or crack parts while tightening lubed fasteners to the high end of a torque specification range. My test bolt looks the same to me, but it likely painfully “exceeded its elasticity barrier” when I applied the anti-seize compound and 65 ft lb. of torque.

Tom Taylor,
RockAuto.com

When I turned 16 in 1976, I got my driver's license. And while my peers were all interested in the typical muscle cars of the day - Mustangs, Camaros, etc., I personally loved the big cars. The first drive away from home with my new driver's license was to a local Ford dealership so I could look at the new cars, and just dream about which one I planned on getting. Before I left the dealership I ventured inside, and there, center stage in the main showroom, was a 1976 triple black Lincoln Continental Mark IV. It was, I thought, the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I had seen older models, but this one was brand new and it looked better than any Mark that preceded it. I swore one day I would own one just like that!

Several years later, I was in a better position financially and set out to look for "my" triple black 1976 Mark IV, but never found one for sale. So I settled on a Gold 1975 Mark IV. While I loved that car, it was not the triple black 1976 with all that beautiful chrome trim.

In 2011, during a casual browsing of want ads, I stumbled across this: "For Sale 1976 Lincoln Continental Mark IV". I opened the ad to view the photos, and there it was! The 1976 triple black Mark IV I had longed to have so many years ago. I immediately called the seller and was told it was already sold. Well nuts...I missed out. But then, two weeks later, I see the same ad had been renewed so I called once again, and yes, the car was for sale. The first buyer failed to come up with the money to buy it. So I went and bought it. The car was in amazing cosmetic shape both inside and out, but it did has some flaws that needed to be addressed.

Even though the car only had 49,407 actual miles on it, 20 years of storage had created issues and the engine ran badly. I decided at this point to just refresh the entire engine from top to bottom. I ordered main bearings, rings, a double roller timing set, a radiator, a fuel tank, and a carburetor from RockAuto.

After 36 years I am finally driving the car I always wanted! Besides...there is little out there new these days I would actually be interested in driving. This old "Mark" does not get the best fuel mileage by today's standards, so I only use it for special occasion driving and love every minute of it. Body and styling are so different than what you usually see today. It stands out in traffic and I get a lot hoots and kudos at stop lights.

Daniel in Tennessee

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