Guys,

One of the valve may be dropped in the cylinder:(. I can't crank the engine by hand more than 180 degree either way.

Is it possible to take the head off with the engine in the car?
How difficult is it?
What kind of special tools do I need to get?

Do I need to take the engine out of the car to to this job?:(

Thanks

 

First pull the valve covers to see what's up.

If needed the heads can be removed and replaced with the engine in the car. You'll need to remove the dist, intake pieces, plug the fuel rail, and remove the exhaust manifold. This will require moving the AIR pump and alt slightly and moving the A/C compressor. Though not terribly difficult it's not trivial. Work carefully and label parts removed.

You will likely need to go under the car if you have to remove and replace the exhaust manifolds. I'm not sure if you'll have to remove the oil dipstick tube or the AIR tube to the cat though they will have to be detached from the right exhaust manifold before removing it.

You'll need a good torque wrench and a special tool to fit the crank pulley bolt will make setting valve lash much easier.

Oh, and stash intake and exhust valve train parts for each cylinder clearly marked so they can be returned to their original location.


[Modified by 65Z01, 4:26 PM 11/24/2001]

 

65Z01,
Thanks for the help, there does not seem to be much room between the rear exhaust manifold bolts and the heater/ac piping on the passenger side and there's no room between the rear ex man bolts and the brake booster on the driver's side. I assume the rear head bolts will be difficult to remove also since these things are in the way. Is there a way around it? Any special angles or tools that will fit in those closed spaces?

 

I just came in from doing mine. You can get at all the manifold bolts fairly easy. I would take the valve covers off first and see what you have. Good luck.

 

Ski-down-it is right. The passsenger side rear is tight but not realy difficult. Since the heads are Al, the header bolts aren't rusted so come right out. The hardest part was removing the hose clamp that holds the SS AIR pipe to the exhaust mafilold lower flange. A GM Vette mechanic showed me the easy way, remove the plate in the wheel well and access the bolt from the side. If you remove the exhaust manifolds, soak the three Y-pipe flange bolts with Liquid Wrench before you start on em. Do the same on the two outer EGR Torx bolts. I placed the Torx socket on an extension into each and rapped it firmly with a small ball pene hammer several times to seat it and loosen the corrosion.

You need to remove the rubber AIR tubing and remove the A/C compressor bolts to pull it up out of the way, and that's to get the valve covers off. On the driver side you need to remove the steel brake booster line and move the two front accessories forward.

I realy didn't check out the head bolts but think you could get a torque wrench on them when installing the heads, that's the crucial step anyway.

If you remove the valve covers and find a dropped valve you're part way into heads removal.

Though I've not pulled the heads yet I've been down to the intake base and had the stock exhaust manifolds out for porting. So we can help if you have any questions.

I had to buy some deep metric (??) sockets and box/open end wrenches to make life easier.