Hello again,

Have any of you removed the heads from an '87 without moving the air conditioner forward? The engine/motor is in the car. I'm asking because I'm having a heck of a time finding the bolts. I do have the FSM,but I'm still in trouble here. Thanks in advance for any help offered.

tankman

 

You have to take all the accessories off because they are bolted to the heads. You can take the A/C loose and move it to the side without loosing any freon .

 

Thank you very much. Do I have to remove the belt tensioner also?

 

I think so, Its only one bolt. One of your best tools right now is a digital camera. Take pictures of everything before you take it off. Mark and bag bolts and parts with masking tape and a sharpy so you know where they came from.

This might help.

http://www.corvetteguruforum.com/mod...topic_id=11500

 

ch@Os,thank you very much for helping me. I am taking pics of everything and marking the bags and tape.

tankman

 

... The big PITA is the T45 torx headed bolt on the bottom of the compressor ... you can't see it without a mirror because of the positioning of the accumulator ... it has a large head with a flat side that allows it to come out from under the AC compressor pulley ... the whole bracket that the compressor is attached to will need to come loose from the studs / nuts on the pass side of the water pump ... the heater hose and the fuel lines run up through the bracket also but there is enough room to move the whole works far enough forward to remove the cylinder head ... good luck .............

 

C409,thank you very much.

 

yep,.Tankman, I forgot to mention THAT particular bolt that has been the reason many a DIY project called the tow truck to haul it to a shop....

As has been said, find that bolt and turn the compressor pulley to the notch to remove the bolt. Its a major case of PPD from GM....
I couldn't get mine back in...so I made a better brace behind the a/c comp, and now live without that bastard bolt... The hole is clean, I can screw it in with nothing else in the way, but if I try to stick the bolt thru the bracket and into the head...it just will not start.
I've been without that bolt for 10+ yrs...so I'm over it as they say. Tie the compressor up and out of the way, and you can take the strap off the a/c dryer and move it over and give yourself a LOT more working room for the water pump and AIR system brackets...
IIWM, I'd pull the driver side manifolds and head first, just to gain confidence. You MAY want to pull the wiper motor, its only 3-10mm bolts and the nut on the shaft. That gives you LOTS of room to lift valve covers up and off and heads too.
The passenger side is more crowded so it takes more patience. Mostly hoses and dipsticks and things like that...nothing serious, just "stuff" that has to be moved so you can get the ex manifold bolts off.
You can also take the wheel liners off and get a good shot at the exhaust manifold bolts and other things..

 

Thanks again leesvet, I did use a small mirror last night and found that bolt. Now to get it out today. I hope I'll be able to get it back in when that time rolls around (month's or years from now). I would never be able to make a better brace.

 

Watch out for the bolts that hold the runners to the intake manifold. They are various sizes so it's easy to get them mixed up. There is one bolt on each side that comes in from the opposite direction of the others, so look for those two.

Mark the position of the distributor rotor (when the distributor is ALL the way down against the top of the intake manifold -- it won't be if the distributor shaft doesn't line up with the oil pump) so it will be easy to get it back into the approximately correct position when you reassemble it. It's probably best to turn the engine over to TDC on cylinder #1.

 

Thank you very much. I have gotten a lot of tips about finding TDC so I'm going to experiment with a couple of them before I pull the distributor.