Cylinder head removal problems

[Egushu]

91 TSi AWD here. Removed all parts to do timing belt change. Removed battery and foundation, UICP, radiator hoses, radiator and reservoir tank, fan assembly, throttle body and bracket, air intake, filter and bov, and oil filter. Disconnected vacuum lines, spark plug wires, accelerator cable, and bunches of other wires. Removed fasteners for valve cover and the thing still won't budge, not even a millimeter.

Got all bolts off exhaust manifold, but I'm assuming I have to take the turbo and o2 housing off first? Otherwise I am unable to get the mani off the one bolt sticking straight up through it. I want to port the o2 housing. Should I separate that from the turbo first? Bolts seem really hard to get to. I think I can get to the one in the back with a deep socket, at least from what I've been reading.

One more problem: the cylinder head removal faq I'm reading says put a 1/2 inch breaker bar on the crankshaft nut and then tap the starter to loosen the nut. My timing belt broke so I don't want to tap the starter to avoid any further damage. Also, I don't have any breaker bars. I'm replacing the cylinder head with a new one as a core charge and kind of need to get it off soon. Somone recommended getting an air impact gun with a 1/2 drive and that will get it off. That means I'd have to rent an air compressor and a gun. But I'm wondering if anybody else has any suggestions as to:

A) Is there any other way to get the crankshaft nut loose?
B) Does my valve cover need to be pried off? (I thought it would be simple to pull).
C) My O2 housing/turbo/ex mani question per above.

Thanks for any help.

 

[boostedinaz]

Wow, you took off a good amount of stuff. i hope you marked it so you know how to put it back. As long as you have all the hoses and vacuum lines off it should pull out. Someitmes they will be hard to get the water pipe to disconect fromt the thermostat housing but a good pull will fix that. I am guessing that you forgot about the support bracket under the intake. It is held on by three bolts and is easiest to take off from under the car.

You need to take the O2 housing off to port it. You dont want all those shaving to get into the turbo.

I am sure you can find some sort of a pipe that will fit over the ratchet end. It doesnt have to be long, maybe about a foot or so. If you take the head off first and then bump the car you wont hurt the head any more. you can do it on the head, its just a quick bump not like you are turning it over a few times. If you cant manage to find a pipe them you will have to go get air tools. The bolt is in there pretty well and the more you turn it the more the motor turns. Good luck.

Michael

 

[Egushu]

Today I removed all components, wires and hoses from the cylinder head, except for the intake manifold. After I take the cylinder bolts off, hopefully the unit will come right off. (I even got the two bolts on the back intake mani brace. I couldn't feel a third). The valve cover came off after I lightly hammered a flathead into its side.

I was reading a faq on how to remove the cylinder head and it said for the ten studs a 1/2 10mm impact socket works best. But the bolts are round. I've read other posts of people using 10mm Allen wrenches.

What is the easiest way to remove these cylinder bolts?

I'm going to put in new ARP studs. I'm assuming these are a direct fit. How much torque should I use when tightening these bolts?

 

[NOSLO2PT0]

STock head bolts require a 10mm hex socket to remove. Do NOT use an impact gun. Use a breaker bar if necessary, but not an impact. As for torqueing them down. Use the ARP moly lube supplied witht he ARP studs. Follow the pattern outlined in the manual for torque sequence. Torque them all down to 25ft/lbs, then 50ft/lbs, then 90 ft/lbs. put everything back together. Take the car for a spin. Remove the valve cover. Retorque back to 90 ft/lbs. Then ur set to go.

 

[boostedinaz]

STock head bolts require a 10mm hex socket to remove. Do NOT use an impact gun. Use a breaker bar if necessary, but not an impact. As for torqueing them down. Use the ARP moly lube supplied witht he ARP studs. Follow the pattern outlined in the manual for torque sequence. Torque them all down to 25ft/lbs, then 50ft/lbs, then 90 ft/lbs. put everything back together. Take the car for a spin. Remove the valve cover. Retorque back to 90 ft/lbs. Then ur set to go.

He is right. Get a long bar and slowly break them lose. Once that is done they will comeout no problem. When you get the studs ARP will have instructions with them. Follow those and you will have no problems.

Michael

 

[TimG]

91 TSi AWD here. Removed all parts to do timing belt change. Removed battery and foundation, UICP, radiator hoses, radiator and reservoir tank, fan assembly, throttle body and bracket, air intake, filter and bov, and oil filter. Disconnected vacuum lines, spark plug wires, accelerator cable, and bunches of other wires. Removed fasteners for valve cover and the thing still won't budge, not even a millimeter.

Why did you remove the UIC pipe, radiator, throttle body, BOV (already attached to the UICP) and the oil filter? You are making moe work for yourself.

Got all bolts off exhaust manifold, but I'm assuming I have to take the turbo and o2 housing off first? Otherwise I am unable to get the mani off the one bolt sticking straight up through it. I want to port the o2 housing. Should I separate that from the turbo first? Bolts seem really hard to get to. I think I can get to the one in the back with a deep socket, at least from what I've been reading.

Uninstall the turbo and O2 housing as one unit. So take out the turbo to manifold bolts and downpipe bolts and have the assembly come out where your intake used to be.

One more problem: the cylinder head removal faq I'm reading says put a 1/2 inch breaker bar on the crankshaft nut and then tap the starter to loosen the nut. My timing belt broke so I don't want to tap the starter to avoid any further damage. Also, I don't have any breaker bars. I'm replacing the cylinder head with a new one as a core charge and kind of need to get it off soon. Somone recommended getting an air impact gun with a 1/2 drive and that will get it off. That means I'd have to rent an air compressor and a gun. But I'm wondering if anybody else has any suggestions as to:

A) Is there any other way to get the crankshaft nut loose?
B) Does my valve cover need to be pried off? (I thought it would be simple to pull).
C) My O2 housing/turbo/ex mani question per above.

Thanks for any help.

Put your car in fifth gear and your clutch will hold your crankshaft solid. Valve cover needs to be pried. I use a gasket scraper and wedge it in with a hammer and pull up.

 

[Egushu]

Why did you remove the UIC pipe, radiator, throttle body, BOV (already attached to the UICP) and the oil filter? You are making moe work for yourself.

I am removing my cylinder head... UIC connects to TB, TB connects to Intake, and that of course connects to the head. I removed radiator and fan assembly because it gives me several inches of free space. To tell you the truth, all of those parts were very easy to remove. It was everything else that was a PITA. Also, I am doing a mini-rebuild, replacing all gaskets and many hoses. I removed my turbo and O2 as one unit and sprayed Liquid Wrench on the bolts.

Put your car in fifth gear and your clutch will hold your crankshaft solid.

I will try this method next time I work on it. I'm assuming I also put it in fifth when I want to tighten it back on.

 

[boostedinaz]

Why did you remove the UIC pipe, radiator, throttle body, BOV (already attached to the UICP) and the oil filter? You are making moe work for yourself.

Most people the first time take off to much or not enough. That is part of the learning experiance and why this is in the newbie section. Next time he will know exactly what he needs to do.

Put your car in fifth gear and your clutch will hold your crankshaft solid. Valve cover needs to be pried. I use a gasket scraper and wedge it in with a hammer and pull up.

Like it has already been said he doesnt need to take off the crankshafty bolt to take the head off and he already has the valve cover off.

Michael

 

[Egushu]

Is there an easy way to loosen the bolts on the exhaust and intake sprockets on the top-side of the head?

 

[Egushu]

Since apparently no one has solved this great mystery yet I will give a description of what I experienced for a removal / removing my 1G cylinder head.

There are faqs that state "do not remove the intake and exhaust manifolds". I removed my exhaust manifold because it was easy and lessened the weight when pulling the head out by myself. Spray the nuts with liquid wrench once or twice and let them soak for a while. I used a socket for the top nuts and a wrench for the ones in between the ports. They can all be easily reached, even the bottom driverside one. The only hard part is loosening the biatches up. Anyway, first I unbolted the O2 housing from the downpipe. Then I got two of the four nuts that connect the O2 housing to the turbo off. The other two were so incredibly difficult to reach I left them on. I later borrowed my neighbors electric impact gun and easily got the other rusted-on bolts off. I also removed my thermostat. That will be replaced with a 180 thermostat. The valve cover will need to be pried off after all fasteners are out. I just got a flathead and lightly hammered it into the gasket and the cover popped off.

Back to the head... I used a 3/8 rachet with an extension connecting to a 10mm allen head socket to remove the head bolts. The extension was kind of long so I put my foot up to support it while I tugged on the handle with both hands. It took a lot of strength but I removed all the bolts in the correct loosening sequence found in my Haynes manual.

On the back of the intake (you can't see them, but you can feel them), there is a brace with two bolts and a hose attached. The bolts can easily be removed with a socket. The driver side has a lot of wires in the way and it took me a while to finally get the socket positioned on the bolt, but I got it.

I then went around and made sure nothing else was attached to the head, then I grabbed one side of the head and a runner on the intake manifoled, broke it free from the gasket, and lifted it up and out of the car and set it on some cardboard.

I bought my rebuilt head from Clearwater Cylinder for $300. It's a core charge so you need to ship them your original head. I live in WA and they are located in FL so the total after shipping was $339, that includes shipping for me to put my original head in the same box they shipped my rebuilt one in, slap the UPS sticker on it, then drop it off at UPS.

Before shipping our your original head you will of course need to remove your intake and exhaust sprockets. Getting the bolts out are a major PITA. I managed to remove one with an electric impact gun and then spent a good 45 minutes working on the other one with no luck. I'm just going to take my head to a shop and have them get it out for me. I'm sure it won't take them long and if they charge me anything it'll probably only be a couple bucks. You also have to take the CAS off. That's the thing behind the throttle body brace that you can move side to side but can't slide off. I'm not sure how to take that off either, so I'll see if someone can when I take it to the shop.

Anyway, hopefully this saves some people some time and money. Read this post along with several other cylinder head removal posts and there should be no problems. I just covered some of what the others didn't.

Do searches for following posts -

Doug99RS - Cylinder Head Component Description
OWGTI - Head Removal Directions
BUCK - Head Removal Steps

 

[Egushu]

Took my head to a shop I've been to before. It took a tech about ten seconds to do what I wanted, and I wasn't charged anything. Second sprocket bolt came off in less than two seconds with an air impact gun. Air tools work wonders! CAS actually just pops off. In some cases, like mine, you will have to really tug on it though.