removing head..

[Liloss]

looking at removing the head on my car, i know pretty much what to do but, but i know that the head sometimes can be a real biarch to get off, so what do you suggest? i dont want to bugge the heads so what can i do to get them off if they wont budge?!

cheers

[Lloyd]

Unbolt inlet and exhaust manifold, remove anything wired up to it, all hoses etc. Remove timing covers and cambelt. Remove rocker cover/s. May have to remove cams to get at head bolts, undo them and lift the head off. Might be stuck down quite well to the gasket so give it a bit of a lever to loosen it.

[TygerTung]

Yep, thats it exactly.... pretty easy job!

Also you can give it a tap with a soft face hammer to loosen then head.

Make sure you undo the head bolts in a tightening cirle, ie start from the outside, and go to the inside, or maybe it's the other way?

[Adamal]

There's usually a pattern for undoing them, and it's best to do it like quater turn each bolt, then do the pattern again taking off another quater turn. Just to even the pressure. Do the same when doing them up.

As for the pattern, most cars are usually the inside ones out.

So lets say you had 10 bolts, 5 along the top, 5 along the bottom, you'd do the top middle, bottom middle, left top middle, bottom right middle, top right middle, bottom left middle, top right outside, bottom left outside, top left outside, bottom right outside.

Hope you get the right idea from that!

[pc]

Ummm.. and don't lever between the block & head surfaces to get it off, so that you don't damage the surface of the head.

[Lloyd]

There is usally a little bit sticking out on the head where you can lever, but as said try not to lever on the actual machined surfaces.

General tightening order for heads below, do it in reverse order for removal.

[Adamal]

Ahh perfect, thats what I was talking about!
Cheers HRT