Explorer serpentine bracket bolts....

Hey guys, I hope someone can help me out here. I bought the explorer brackets for the front of my 351w a while back and the guy did not have the bolts for them. I am finally at the point where I can finish off the front dress, but am having a hard time getting the right size of bolt. I just need to figure out the diameter and from there I will take the brackets to the store and figure out which length I need. If anyone knows what size the holes in the heads are tapped for It would definately prevent another headache. Thanks.

Its probably going to vary. I had stock heads on my 351w, but when I put my World products heads on, I had to go buy completely different bolts.

Some are 3/8 coarse, a few are 7/16 and maybe even a 1/2" here or there, but most will be the first two....come on these are standard hardware that should be in every Bronco-owner's stash....as far as lengths...man, I cant really say...luckily, mine came with most of the bolts and I had a bunch that I picked up along the way during the build of all sizes and lengths. I know there are a few in the 5-6" range.

I had a problem finding long enough 5/16"-ers for the phenolic spacer on the EFI intake...but I think you are more concerned about the front dress and each piece has a different length. Measure the bracket thickness and add 3/4-1" ...most of the holes in the block are tapped about 1" in. As far as what holes are which size...you should be able to determine a 3/8 vs 7/16 by sight, if not, go pick-up a few of each, come back and make a diagram of what piece goes with which hole, determine diameter and pitch--although almost all should be coarse--(with your new couple of bolts) and then determine your needed length by which piece (width-wise) corresponding to which hole (adding the + 3/4-1" length). HTH.

I actually didnt even buy bolt after I put my new heads on, i just went and bought a stick of all thread and some nuts and washers that was the correct thread, and cut each peice to length I wanted.

My brackets came with 3/8"
Some of them didn't work on the FORD heads I used. Had to use 7/16" (actually used an old head bolt in one place). One bracket required drilling to let the 7/16" bolt pass through.

so with that, I won't tell you what diameter bolts to use as I cannot even get consistant results using all Ford castings.

Thanks guys. The problem I am running into is I have a couple of holes in the heads that are not 1/2, 3/8, or 7/16...... it's more than likely a F*****G metric. I chatted with a couple of the Ford guys downtown today and they gave me the good news that some odd Ford 351 heads they have run across were tapped for metric sizes, but there was no way in identifying which ones. Guess I'll go and increase my metric bolt collection with a whole bunch of differet sizes.... never such thing as a useless bolt in the bin...

UPDATE:
OK so I finally got it.... There are four holes in my heads that are tapped for a M10.

Thanks for the help

For future reference and for anyone looking for bolts on a standard head, here are the bolts and sizes.

Some of the early Explorers also have a 7th bolt on the passenger side down by the tensioner. Bolts to the "smog pump boss" on the block, if you have such a boss or it does nothing if you are using a block without such a boss on it.