Well, lost my first bolt during the engine rebuild. One of the shorter front cover bolts. (If that is the correct term for the aluminum casting that bolts over the oil pump/chain area and is held on by six bolts.

Anyone have the specs? I forgot to measure the length when I measured the other non-missing short bolt. That bolt is now in and torqued and am guessing not advised to remove at risk of messing up the gasket seal.

And.... can I use a bolt from the special bolt drawers at Home Depot and if so, grade and finish.

looks like these may be hard to find as out of stock and listed as no longer made at Atkins so looking for a workaround. Thanks.

 

Pics.

Thread dia.

Shaft dia.

 

its an 8mm x 1.25 bolt. not sure about the length, but you can take a longer bolt (or something) and stick it in there and measure that.

 

Once you have the length you can use a bolt from a hardware store/Home Depot/Lowes, etc. Note that the typical metric hardware you will find may have a hex size that differs from the OE Mazda bolts. Look for a JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) version of the bolt you need to maintain the same hex size for all of the fasteners on the engine's front cover. All of the ACE Hardware stores in my area have a selection of JIS bolts.

https://www.nutsandbolts.com/jis.html

 

Just use your caliper slide out to measure the depth of the hole with the cover held in place.

 

Front Cover Bolts

 

Oh my, there I am sitting looking at a caliper with a built in means of measuring hole depth and totally failed to put two and two together. Seriously, looking for a zebra when I have a horse right in front of me. And I swear Atkins was out of bolt kits when I ordered new belts etc yesterday. Going with a Home Depot bolt anyway, as I need to take a trip there this morning. My wife swears I am having an affair with the guy at the checkout counter. Told the wife that last time I was at Home Depot someone asked me for help as 'I looked like someone that worked there'. My wife explained that that was not a compliment.

 

Loose the orange apron next time you go to Home Depot.