Removing Heads

[Twister]

Well after finding chocolate milk on my dipstick, i decided to tackle taking the heads off. Boy what a task

Here are both the valve covers, looks like some high quality pudding

Passenger side

Driver side

After i took upper intake off

After removing lower intake and dizzy

So next i need to remove the Exhaust Manifold bolts, other than soaking them in mass amount of PB Blaster, is there anything else i can do to prevent them breaking.

 

[jhammel85]

Some heat would help when removing those bolts but you will most likely end up with one or two bolts broken off in the head.

 

[RustedRanger]

I have got a exhaust manifold off after rounding off the head of the bolt by grinding the head off so the manifold comes off then you can get PB to soak into the threads then use some Visegrips to turn the bolt. That didn't work for what I was doing so I very carefully used a Dremel and some of the small grinding bits to "drill" a hole into the center of the bolt until I could just see the threads then ran a tap in it,that was ages ago but I'm thinking I made the hole too big so I used a Helicoil.

 

[Twister]

Some heat would help when removing those bolts but you will most likely end up with one or two bolts broken off in the head.

I expect to break atleast 1 or 2 of the bolts, i just want try and get them all out with breakage. I will try some heat when removing them.

 

[Twister]

Well that sucked. I tried to remove 3 bolts and all 3 of them broke. That was after soaking them in PB for 4 days

If i break all the bolts, am i still going to able to pull the heads straight up or am i going to have to remove them from the Y pipe?

 

[Twister]

Well so far i have broken every single exhaust manifold bolt. Luckily they have broken right at the beginning of the threads so there is a nub sticking out of the head. I have got the passenger side head off before it got to dark and cold and i started on the driver, i took 4 exhaust bolts out, and 3 of them broke, i should have the other head off tomorrow.

 

[Psychopete]

Are you having the heads checked for cracks? The manifold bolts may be a non issue if you are having to replace the entire head. Engine looks pretty clean for it's vintage (besides the coolant ).

 

[Twister]

Are you having the heads checked for cracks? The manifold bolts may be a non issue if you are having to replace the entire head. Engine looks pretty clean for it's vintage (besides the coolant ).

Yes i am going to have them checked for cracks, the driver side head came out just the same, all broke but one broke. I think the passenger side was the culprit, the water jackets surrounding cylinder 2 were all white, where as all the other ones were dark like it was still circulating.

So i am going to get them checked and see whats up.

 

[NEVERDONE86]

When iremoved mine the engine was out of the truck. I lifted the y pipe off with the engine. I soaked all the bolts and only 3 of 12 survived. I used a grinder and made them flush with the head and drilled and tapped the new holes. I went everywhere looking for the bolts and the dealer said the bolts I need were 15 bucks a pop. I went home and retapped the holes to a common sized bolt and went that route. good luck with the bolts!

 

[Twister]

Well took heads to machine shop today, $60 to get both manafluxed and cleaned. Should here back from them on monday.

 

[Twister]

Well one head had a severe crack in between the valve seats, and the other was warped. So it looks like I am replacing the heads

 

[robertc1024]

Bummer - at least you didn't get 'em checked out and put them back on.

 

[Twister]

Yeah

Here is a pic of the crack, i had to paint it with a silver paint to get it to show up on the camera

 

[CarsonChris68]

Here's where I'm at. I did the same as you. Took them to a machine shop. Pressure tested. One was bad. One was ok but warped. Had some chinese made heads and checked all the bolt holes. Two were out, couldn't run the center rocker arm bolt. Took those heads to a machine shop and one wouldn't seal so had the valves ground proper. Now I have two perfectly working heads but after going through my engine found I have a bad cylinder #6.

 

[Twister]

where did you buy your heads so i can avoid them?