At the shop yesterday, just finished rearranging the clients vehicles to make room, because we've got another one coming in ('35 Olds) and in anticipation of the engine swap, backed up the '74 deep in the back of the shop in the last spot.

So we sat down and had a popsicle and my shop partner John, says, "I bet we can pull the heads in an hour." Mind you, the car just ran under it's own power for about ten minutes and was still hot. I thought about it for about ten seconds and said, 'you're on'! We looked at the clock and it was exactly 6 PM.

I grabbed a big red bin, and at the toolbox, dumped a bunch of tools into it and then we started. Pop the hood and drop some fender covers on Sassy. Then, I'm disconnecting the battery and John is taking off the air cleaner, then we started working on either side of the engine bay, valve covers, alternator, brackets, drain the coolant, watching it overflow the not-quite-big-enough oil drain pan. John is pulling the distributor and he's got all the spark plug wires on the right side, but I can't figure out, how he avoided burning himself on the still-hot exhaust, so I use a pair of Spark Plug Pliers to pull the ones on my side.

John's disconnecting the fuel lines and fuel pressure gauge, I grab a ratchet and the rocker arms are coming off. They're still hot, as I dump them into a bin, along with the push rods. I wrestle the upper radiator hose and it's now past 6:30, thirty minutes into it. Brake booster vacuum line comes off the carb, I'm yanking on it, but find out that it's securely clamped to the carb, a screwdriver loosens it and it comes off.

John is pulling the spark plugs on the passenger side and I start breaking the head bolts loose on the driver's side, then start on the exhaust manifold bolts, all 3/8 ARP, and of course, the inner ones are always a beyatch. We switch sides, I'm looking at the clock. It's five minutes to Seven PM. No way, we're going to make it, but we flog on. The intake manifold bolts crack loose on the old Edelbrock Performer and then, the manifold, complete with the carb still attached comes off.

It's 7:10 and I realize that I still need to loosen the head bolts on the bottom of the heads! I got all the ones inside, but the ones on the lower edge, I forgot about in my excitement. That means we have to pull the headers off. Crap. It's now 7:12 and with a big puddle of overlfowed coolant on the shop floor, John say's we can do this tommorow. We take a popsicle break and halfway through the popsicle, I walk to the other end of the shop and grab two jackstands, tossing them on the ground, the jack is next and I'm pumping the handle in the tight confines between the cars. It's 7:15

I grab some 9/16 wrenches including a ratcheting box end and am rolling through the puddle of coolant on my creeper. The collector bolts give me little trouble and soon the headers are loose, it's 7:20. John grabs the 1/2 inch drive breaker bar and starts cracking loose the passenger side lower head bolts and I'm following him with a speed handle. There's plenty of room, because I was able to drop the header completely out. I start on the driver's side and John gets a pry bar and a piece of wood and the passenger side heads easily pops off.

The driver's side, though, the header can't drop out, because of the clutch's Z-bar getting in the way, but we have just enough room. John's cracking them loose and afterwards, I'm having trouble getting the speed handle down into the space between the header flange and the bottom of the head. The end of the extension, the swivel and the socket are covered in oil, I'm having a bear of a time, even getting the socket on some of the heads. It's 7:30! I get the last of the bolts out and John is standing there, with the pry bar and wood. Pop! It too, pops easily off and we look at the clock. It's 7:35. We didn't do it in an hour, but at just a bit over an hour and a half, both heads are on the work bench!

 

That's pretty good! One fall after our sprint car season closed I stripped the drivetrain out of the car by myself in just under 6 hours. No body panels to deal with but I dropped the tranny, headers, intake, radiator and pulled the engine and removed the heads just in time for the owners to come home from work to a nice surprise. It's kind of fun when you know what you're doing taking it all apart.

 

So why did you pull the heads?

 

We're doing an engine swap and need the aluminum heads off the old engine. We have a pretty clean four bolt main SBC we want to drop in there. This is after we found a wiped cam lobe and lifter after investigating a noise on the passenger side and with unknown miles on the L48 and the prospect of having to remove the hood, radiator support, radiator, water pump and accessories, we figured it would be just as easy to swap out the engine, because we're almost there anyways.

My buddy, the former drag boat crewchief has connections and if I supply the block, crank and the heads, we're going to get a fresh rebuild, balanced, blueprinted long block with 2.02 valves replacing the 1.94's in the L98 heads for $2,100. That includes a custom cam to any spec we want. I'm going to spend a couple hundred more and get a roller rocker set up. I'm shooting for 375 to 400 horsepower.

This Friday, we cruise the local Pick Your Part junkyard for an 88-89 Caprice to pull the serpentine belt set up as well, as I saw it done on an early 70's Elky recently and it's a darn near bolt in. Going to add a UEGO A/F fuel ratio gauge as well, as it was obvious we were running too rich, as there were some pretty good caramelized fuel deposits in the valve pockets.

 

You must've been just as sore as I was this morning! I'm sure you know all about working on hot motors as well!

 

Change of plans. Crap, late last night, I thought that was fuel varnish staining the heads, but it's isn't, it's oil! And we talked about it at lunch, because it all points out to a tired bottom end on the original L48 that's sitting in there now. The piston rings are probably nearing the end of their life.

Instead of the four bolt main, we decided that we're going to use the numbers matching block that's in there now. I doubt it's ever been pulled or rebuilt, so we're looking at going 0.30 over and that way, we won't have a spare block hanging around, that we can't use. A two bolt main will also, easily meet the need for a 375-400 hp motor as well. The four bolt main motor, can be used on some other project.

So tonight, we get to work to pull the rest of the motor out!

 

Nothing like working hard!

 

And there's nothing like having a plan "B"......


and plan "C".....just in case!

 

Rock on, brother man...

 

Thank you guys! It helps so much, that everything is relatively clean. We're not having to deal with 40 years of crud, like the first time we did it, nearly two years ago. Now it's only two years of crud! We picked up the engine hoist from one of our circle track buds, last night. We only have the two lower trans bolts holding it in, and that's it. It's coming out tommorow.

We talked about the engine hoist and my shop partner mentioned why it was a good thing we were getting it from him. It's one of those old and oversize, USA made Continentals. Because we have all the cars slotted in sideways, there's only one way to get the engine out, and that's from the front! With that wickedly long front end, only that big old Continental, has the reach to do it. I now understand, why almost everyone else, has to remove the motor from the side. The typical, newer engine hoists are a lot shorter, then the antique, we're borrowing. Plus, we can get it any time we want and it doesn't take valuable shop space. Thank God for our Gearhead Community!