Head Repair Page 6

June 5, 2002: Another Day Begins

The day dawned bright and early at about 9:30 am.  (We retired guys got it made!)  After downing my morning cup of coffee, I crawled under the Westy and looked at the remnants of the exhaust assembly.  Tentatively, I grasped the front cross member between cylinders 1 and 3 on the two heads.  Hey!  It came right off the head studs!  Am I living right or what?

I reached in from the top of the engine bay and loosened the one remaining stud nut on the left head.  The rear exhaust assembly wiggled.  I loosened it more, and with no effort was able to remove the header pipe from the right head.  The head was now free as a bird and ready for removal!


Valve Cover Removal:

I came down from above and pried the retainer clamp off the valve cover with a large screwdriver.  The valve assembly looked pretty good at first blush.  I'll give it a more detailed inspection later.


Next step: Back to the Bentley.

After a run to the tool store for a 1/2 inch 17 mm socket for the head nuts, I was ready to go back to work.  

A careful inspection of the head revealed that I had neglected to remove the rigid coolant hose attached to the front of the head under the power steering pump (already removed) and the flexible hose attached to the rear.  These came off easily.

I backed off the head nuts (in reverse order of what Bentley recommends for torquing them down), and gently pried the head away from the cylinders until the push rod tubes were free and could be removed.  As I loosened the nuts, about a quart of undrained coolant came down on my head.  I quickly moved the bucket to catch what I could of it.   As I removed the push rod tubes, I cleaned each one by spraying the outside with a bit of carb cleaner and wiping it down with a shop towel.  Then I applied a piece of masking tape and labeled each one with a number, beginning with the rearmost tube.  Next the head nuts came off completely, and the head sat there, hanging on the studs.

Carefully, I began to pull the head away from the engine.  Ah ha!  Now I understand what everyone warns about with respect to cylinder liners.  Those little suckers were coming right along with the head!  Before I went too far, I pushed the head back in place and decided to walk away for awhile.  I read someplace that lightly tapping the liners with a rubber mallet would usually free them up.  Time to check the Vanagon.com archives... then I better get a small rubber mallet.

Ben Huot, one of our Canadian friends on the Vanagon Mailing List, had posted how he used a rubber mallet and a hockey stick to tap the sleeves free of the cylinder head.  So back out I went, armed with a rubber mallet and the handle of a hammer that I chose to use in lieu of the hockey stick, and gently rapped all around the cylinder sleeve.  Then I not-so-gently rapped around the cylinder sleeve.  

Finally, I noticed a small lip on the sleeves near the head studs.  Using a large screw driver, I was able to finally pry both sleeves free of the head.  And -- GOOD NEWS! -- The head came off!



June, 5, 2002 - 4:00 pm Central Daylight Time

But, BAD NEWS! -- The cylinder sleeves were out so far I was unable to return them to their home position.  Now what!?


Well, tomorrow is another day.


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