Head work

[transplant]

Pulling head to pressure check valve seals maybe valve grind. When I pull crank (at tdc) the bolt that goes though side of block has to be installed? And would a strap wrench work or do I have to use balancer removal bar? And last but not least crank bolt and diamond washer need to be replaced if removed more than once. There is a guy on YouTube who does a head gasket change but it doesn't show those few things and Haynes doesn't have it all either

 

[86beater]

Why not just new heads, would be easier. When i did mine i just set at tdc and took em off and reinstalled the new ones...

 

[transplant]

Head work with valve grind is $150 at a highly recommend shop, a head on rock is $450,gasket set $80 with bolts. I also already got valve seals. Plus I just got a used motor with 54k on it and it's no good bearing knock and one cylinder has low compression and could plugs. Trying to save a little.
Did you pick the crank with a bolt? How did you hold balancer while loosening and torqueing crank bolt? Did you reuse crank bolt and backing washer?

 

[adsm08]

The timing bolt doesn't need to be in when you take the crank out, it just needs to be there and have the weight against it while the timing is being set. Once the head is off that bolt can come out.

IIRC Ford says a strap wrench can be used to hold the crank pulley while taking the crank bolt out, and recommends against the use of an impact gun. My experience has been that the strap wrench doesn't hold on the final torque, and sometimes doesn't hold when knocking the bolt loose. I used a second person with some giant-ass channel locks on the last 2.3 I did this on. I used the wrench first and it managed to slip time on the final torque.

According to Ford the diamond washer and crank bolt shouldn't be reused at all, but those bugger are expensive and I have gotten away with it.

 

[transplant]

The bolt in side of block stops the crank from spinning and there is supposed to be one in the front of ballancer and file in back, do you know what size and pitch the front bolt is? I appreciate it.

 

[transplant]

Well my head isn't rebuildab or the can followers are worn down pretty bad. Pretty well are up. Back to drawing board...yeah!!!!