I bought one of the knockoff manifolds from Ebay.. searched everywhere and found several instances where people said the turbo to manifold bolts are M10x1.25. So I got 4 of these bolts and gave it a shot.. could only get a couple threads in. Take a ratchet to it.. I can get like 4-5 threads in.

Next I thought it was seizing up cause of all the crap in the holes from the production process. little metal shavings. So I got some alcohol and cotton swabs and went to town making those bolt holes squeaky clean. Tried again.. no luck. I examined the bolt closely and realized it's definitely cross-threading. I hope I haven't damaged the one hole I tried, but if I did there are plenty more threads left under those 4-5 that I did mess up. Plus I can always re-tap it.

Any ideas? Anyone run into this issue? I can try some standard bolts.. gonna have to throw the manifold in a shopping cart and go to Home Depot Racing, I guess. The strange thing is, the wastegate bolts right up, no problems. The bolt holes for the head seem to be right on. Now why the hell do these turbo bolt threads seem to be some mysterious size?

Btw.. I did try a M10x1.0 and that was definitely not it.. Wouldn't even thread in one thread.

Its probably standard picth then, not metric.

Email the company and ask them what it is...

If its a true copy of the Star......the bolts will be metric.

Look at the threads in the manifold and tell me, are they a finer thread than the 1.25 or more course thread? If its a more course thread you want 10mm X 1.50

It should be a metric bolt. I dont have my star manifold anymore to tell you what it was.

yea, i have lowes bolts holding my wastegate and turbo on :) grade 10. I just took the mani to lowes and tried different sizes/pitches. yea, ghetto, so what

It's coarser. I didn't see any 1.5 pitch bolts at Home Depot when I went.. but then again their selection was terrible and there weren't even enough M8x1.25's for me to attach my downpipe.

I'll go shopping again tonight if I'm feeling up for it.

LOWE'S, not HD. HD's selection compared, SUCKS

It's been my experience that Lowe's/HD in the Tampa area don't know what a metric bolt is. Go to ACE; they usually have a better selection of metric stuff. Or, Tractor Supply; I bought my exhaust manifold bolts from them the last time, I think.

Take your manifold with you.

I hit up Lowes since the nearest Ace is a little far from me. The bolts are M10x1.5 and I bought them 25mm long. That one hole where I forced the bolt in did accept the new bolt and it's solid as a rock, but when I take it out with the socket wrench, I'm still unable to thread a new bolt in by hand like the others. Have I screwed up the threads? Is this going to cause me trouble when the turbo is actually installed? I plan to use lock washers on all the bolts so I couldn't imagine it backing out.. I may have to raid my gf's dad's tools and find a M10x1.5 tap and run it through the threads.

Thats what i was thinking....M10X1.5.

The one hole you started to cross thread it. It wont be an issue when installed. If you really want to make it easier then chase the threads with a M10X1.5 tap. Most kits will have that tap.

Good stuff. Now all I have left to do is lap the mating surfaces of the exhaust housing, manifold, and downpipe, get new downpipe bolts (got mine 5mm too long, dammit, time to exchange them), and grab a length of vac line and I have everything to proceed with my install. This time next month I'll be boosted. I'm going to document everything thoroughly and contribute to the wiki.