the heads are stuck on pretty well.....tried some good whacking on a chisel in the corners of the heads between the head and the block with a 3lb hammer and nothing is happening. i am a little reluctant to beat on the chisels any more......some studs are left in the head and we have these soaking with pb blaster in case they have decided to mate with the head.....only trick i can think of is to put the plugs back in and crank the engine (no fuel or spark) to see if the compression stoke will loosen anything. any tricks? thks bob
I don't believe that cranking compression will do anything for you. A couple of old timers have told me they used to remove the nuts/studs from the heads and fire up the engine letting running compression push the heads off the seated position. They emphasized to drain the block before doing this. Anyone here ever tried this? Frank
They can be a *****. You might be able to find a head puller special tool made by Wilson and others. If Bruce is on he can tell you, maybe PM him. Black powder actually works!!!
First off, is it rusty? If the heads are rusted to the studs, go down to the health food store or the drug store and buy a little bottle of oil of wintergreen. Get a small syringe and put the wintergreen in the syringe. Put a few drops around each stud. It's a rust eater. There have been many threads here about loosening rusty stuff, everything from ****** fluid and acetone to Mama's syrup, but I'm tellin ya oil of wintergreen will EAT rust. Try it. If it's just a nut or bolt thats tight, well, it's just tight, but if it's rusty?, oil of wintergreen is the deal. Lippy
In the old days they sold a thin hole saw that fit the stud and cut mostly rust and dirt out and freed the head. Can you still get those?
removing stuck banger head, inline head, or flathead head tech from Elrod. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=216035
Well....if its really stuck and you want to get them off.....get some oil.....put it into the cylinder with a squirt gun.....have the valves close on one of the middle cylinders, get a long chain wrench on the front of the crank or a socket and a big pullhandle....with about a 4' piece of cheater pipe on that pull handle....get to boucing.....she'll come on off! Then repeat for the other side..........
thks guys the ELROD article was great and gave me a new avenue, i was talking about that with my son last night but wasnt sure if i could get the bolts that had the right thread for the spark plugs....didnt think about using the spark plug base.....i bet i can get those "anti oil foulers" to use as the base . i made a TDC tool out of one of those once, not sure if they make them in the larger diameter of my plugs though....they are aluminum heads and i would hate to pull the threads out...i wonder what the max torque would be for the bolts to apply pressure? i will keep you posted and if i make the jig i will post pictures of it, the oil idea sounds good also only problem is i have such a blow by problem i dont know if i could keep the oil in there......maybe i will use that 90 weight gear oil. some things to toy with tonight. thks bob
I just removed the studs until my heads came free. Speedways stud puller works but will wear out after about one head. The remainder I welded the nuts on with my welder and backed out the studs. They have to come out for boring the cylinders anyway.
dissimilar metal corrosion. aluminum head, against the steel studs. you may have to sacrifice the studs, by drilling them out. then replace them with bolts. so the next time it would be easier to turn them out and brake loose the corrosion.
ok i got the "spark plug non foulers" dorman # 42002 and #42009 i will drill these out and put a bolt in them and then attach it to some thick angle iron stock....any reason i cant use the engine hoist with some chain wrapped around the angle iron to apply some "pulling" force on the heads? the engine is still bolted to the frame of the car. we tried using a stud puller last night on a stud that had bent and we just broke the stud in half.
I would first take a spark plug and knock out the center. Weld a quick connect male fitting to the spark plug base. Use compressed air with nuts started on the studs for when it breaks loose to keep from cutting your head off at the neck. BTW Kroil is twice as good as PB blaster. I'm afraid of pulling hard on those aluminum heads with the Dorman fittings you described. Patience is the key here so as to not damage the block or the heads. Jim
If the engine turns over, just feed some heavy cord or light rope down the plug holes, then crank it over. the piston will pop the head off, no mess, no need for it to hold compression. Or use blasting cord, that'll shake 'em loose!!! Also, try pulling all the studs, if they break, well, you're no worse off than you were before.
thks for the help: heres what i did the home made version using dorman spark plug non foulers drilled out for grade 5 bolts and a friend that came to watch
thks Jim those are good points, we wound up using only hand wrenches and used a torque wrench to measure the torque to keep it at no more then 25lbs. i was scared of pulling the threads out. this is a father/son project and Jr is 6' 3" , 200#s, 17 yrs old and is strong as a moose. so i had him use the torque wrench and then go to the boxend so he would "know" what 25lbs felt like. i also am only covering 1/2 of the head studs and really just wanted to use this method to break it free. this afternoon we pulled the intake to get better leverage onthe head and to my surprise the valve stems look really new and the tappets have the adjustable feature to them. i am interested to see the rest. and i am thinking that some rebuilt the top end previously and left the bottom alone....stay tuned
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