Head Repair - Page 4
June 1, 2002, Day 5: Work Begins Again

In between "honey do's" I removed the front grill and opened the bleeder valve on the radiator.  What a surprise!  It's a 13 mm bolt!  Good... More coolant coming into the bucket.  Not a very heavy stream, though, which is somewhat disappointing.  I expected to get a lot more out than I have so far.   After this, I fixed brunch for my wife and grandson, and it occurred to me that I had failed to open the heater valve.  So back I went outside to perform this simple task.  This resulted in another tablespoon of coolant dropping into the bucket.

After we ate, I put on the rubber gloves and began seriously taking stuff off the top of the engine.  At first, like my experience with the injectors, it was very intimidating, but as work progressed, I began to experience a sensation of transcendence -- "What the hell.  I can put all this stuff back where it belongs..."

First order of business was the removal of the air intake elbow boot (if that's what it's called).  It's a big "S" shaped piece of hard rubber or plastic with about three major hoses coming out of it, one going to the oil sump breather.  This done, I took a few minutes to douse the part in soapy water to remove some of the dirt and grease that have accumulated in the last 169,000 miles.

Then back I went to unbolt the big metal coolant pipe that runs transversely across the top of the engine.  I removed the flexible hose that attaches it to the overflow tank and removed the nuts holding the two pipe brackets, one on either side of the engine.  After the pipe was free, I moved it up and back out of the way and carefully returned the nuts and other hardware to their moorings on the engine.  (I generally find it wise to return all nuts to their bolts and bolts to their threaded holes after removing whatever hardware was attached to them.  Less danger of losing small hardware or using the wrong size fastener.)   I noticed a lot of scale build up on the inside of the metal pipe.  I think I'd better flush...

At this point, my engine bay looked like this:


Next step was the removal of those big intake pipes that come from the central manifold to the cylinder head.  I had already removed the bolts that held the lower right fitting to the head, so all I had to do was remove the hose clamps where the hoses attached to the pipes, and yank the pipes free.  (I have the feeling these clamps cannot be reused... I need to clarify this.)

We're almost there.  Sitting toward the rear of the head, underneath the pipes, was the auxiliary air regulator.  Looked easy enough to remove.  I put my 12 point 10 mm wrench on the rearmost nut and it came right off.  The nut on the front was a bit more difficult to reach, and when I put my socket on it and turned, the wrench began to slip.   Hmmm.... I tried with a 10 mm box wrench.  Same business.  Could it be an 11 mm?  Nope.  In desperation, I put a 6 point 10 mm socket on the end of my ratchet and it caught and backed right off.  Now there's one I don't fully understand!  With the pipes off in the photo you can see the auxiliary air regulator sitting toward the rear of the head.

Finally, the head is fully exposed in all its glory!  Only one last task remains before removing the valve cover and beginning the removal process -- taking off the dreaded exhaust.  Only one nut remained on the studs (the others came off during the removal of the push rod cover).   Gleefully, I removed it and placed it in a zip lock bag with its three companions.  That's enough for today.  Once again, it's time to read the manual.

At the end of the day, Here's what I had (except for the aux air regulator which is shown still attached to the head):



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