Is there an easy way to remove head?

[wickedz]

OK guys seriously, I have removed a few 4g63 heads, and all of which have been a pain in the ass. I have to do timing, and water pump, and head gasket im sure. While my turbo will be off to be rebuilt, I would like to take the down time to remove head and replace stock gasket with a better gasket.

Question is, does anyone have any tips of quick tips on removing head? DO I have to keep intake mani on head? I know all about that bottom bi*** bolt under the intake mani, that I can never reach my hands back there to get it out or put back in . I have seen lots of pictures where people have just their heads off, but intake mani still in car and whatnot wtf?

Also what size tq bit is needed for head bolts again?

 

[TRSblader]

I took my head off with intake manifold still on it, and then took the manifold and other things off in my bedroom later. I disconnected all lines running to the head, took my belts off, and disconnected everything running to the intake manifold and then unbolted the head from the block and had a friend lift one side while I grabbed the other. Thermostat, fuel rail and injectors, and things of that nature were still on as well. I was doing a part out so this was easier for me - just get it out of the car and worry about everything else later since it was all being sold anyway.

I forget the bolt size but I think 10 or 12mm. Been a while since I took it off.

 

[92AWDHX40]

Not sure of the size either i took that bracket off long ago. I do believe its a 12 or 14.

 

[tkhaab_94]

^What he said. It's a piece of cake. I did it by myself. First time. It was easy.

 

[wickedz]

oh I can do it . I just wanted to know if anyone had any tips for quick removal

 

[cruisintalonawd]

I took my head off with intake manifold still on it, and then took the manifold and other things off in my bedroom later. I disconnected all lines running to the head, took my belts off, and disconnected everything running to the intake manifold and then unbolted the head from the block and had a friend lift one side while I grabbed the other. Thermostat, fuel rail and injectors, and things of that nature were still on as well. I was doing a part out so this was easier for me - just get it out of the car and worry about everything else later since it was all being sold anyway.

I forget the bolt size but I think 10 or 12mm. Been a while since I took it off.

if your talking about the thing on the back of the intake, then is a 14mm took one off the other day

If you plan on buying a new timing belt then i would just cut it, or you can try and unbolt the cam gears

 

[SBstar]

For the t-belt just loosen the tensioner pulley. If yours is old you'll be replacing the actual tensioner anyways so don't worry to much about that. Once the tension is off you'll be able to pull the belt right off.

 

[JAXWHITE1G]

I find it easiest to leave the intake, exhaust manifolds, and the thermostat housing attached to the head. It's heavier that way but you don't have to try to get all over the engine to remove every bolt holding them on.

 

[wickedz]

The last head I yanked, I kept the intake mani and exhaust mani attached. It was heavy yes, but gave me something to grab ahold of to life straight up off the car.

 

[Rex2342]

Same as everyone else said just leave everything bolted to the head. The bracket on the underside of the intake is a pain to reach that's why many people just leave it off. I wouldn't cut the timing belt though. Take the belt off the right way so you don't risk damage to the valves or anything. What I've done with mine over the years is to eliminate everything that isn't absolutely needed in the engine bay. I can get my head of in a little over an hour because there isn't much left to unbolt or disconnect. It also helps to look over everything before you start so you know what needs to be removed and what doesn't. This way you don't waste valuable time taking something off that doesn't even need to be removed.

 

[wickedz]

how can you damage valves by cutting timing belt? I mean its not like Im runing the car and just snapping the belt. Maybe im confused

 

[Rex2342]

how can you damage valves by cutting timing belt? I mean its not like Im runing the car and just snapping the belt. Maybe im confused

I've just never liked doing it this way. Once the belt is cut the valve springs snap the valves shut and it always makes me cringe. Either way you have to remove the timing cover sooner or later. I just always play it safe

 

[jrohner]

I leave the intake and exhaust manifold on the head. Only take apart what is necessary. You can probably have the head off in less than an hour easily. I usually remove the cam gears, but last time I left them on and it made it a lot easier to put the head back on since I had something good to hold onto. If your timing belt is pretty fresh, leave it alone as well and just get or make a tool to compress the tensioner and mark the belt.

 

[wickedz]

nope 99,xxx miles time for a new one along with water pump while im at it. This is my DD, so I wanted to make sure ALL maintenance stuff is checked and replaced.

 

[Derrack]

After pulling up the v-faq for a timing belt change I'll hold your hand for this one.

My cars a 2g Gst.

Disconnect and remove battery. *safety first arcing the alternator to grounded anything = burn wires and plugs* and the space is required later for removing the throttle body.

Empty coolant and oil. or just coolant. and change oil after running the engine for a bit incase gasket material got into the oil passages....

In the end your going to have to remove all the stuff anyways so you might as well do it in order.

Stuff you'll need for ease of convenience. Tools: wrenches, sockets, socket extenders and swivels, bottle jack, floor jack, cinderblocks or jack stands and a couple of paper clamps or construction clamps.

Short 2x4 *for propping the hood up instead of the regular hood stand which will get in the way when removing the head from the car*

Foot long 2x10 chunks* or anything to get the bottle jack in the sweet spot and for placing under the oil pan on top of the bottle jack*

I did mine outside. lift E brake and put into nutral. *if it's not in nutral you'll be wondering why you cant turn your crank shaft later* Floor jack under cross member and toss the cinderblocks under the front wheels. Since it's going to be up for awhile. Or place jack stands under the jack spots under the doors *I don't like to use this method because the weight can bend the under carriage* Block off both sides of both rear tires with wood or other means.

Place bottle jack under oil pan with one piece on top and two or three pieces of wood under it *gets it in a sweet spot of taking it out wile fully depressed and getting maximum range of jack movement* A floor jack will work too but is harder to work around under the car. Floor has a bigger footprint than a bottle jack. and you can take the handle off the bottle jack. Bottle jack at your convenience to complete any task.

Remove upper timing cover from timing belt. Bag and tag.

Remove S hose from the intake to blow off valve.

disconnect vacuum hose from bov off the intake. leave attached to bov.

On top of head. Unplug and remove all wires and lay aside. Take off fuel return line. Take off fuel supply line. Disconnect throttle and lay aside. Tuck the grounded wire that's under one bolt away and make note of where it belongs.

Unscrew the mount next to the throttle body that your throttle connects to and lay aside. *I put the bolts for it back in the fire wall to limit the amount I bag and tag*

Disconnect the vacuum hoses on top of the throttle body. Four go to sensors on the fire wall right behind the manifold. Disconnect the two from the right sensor that has two going into it. Remember or write down which is attached to which post on the sensor. one of mine had an orange dot on the sensor post and I tagged the hose with orange. Leave the hoses on the throttle body. Disconnect the one from the other sensor from the throttle body. *this should be the middle one of the three*

Remove the throttle body. this is for ease of removing the vacuum lines behind the intake manifold. there are three connected to the metal pipe loom that's on the intake manifold. I like to leave all the vacuum lines I can attached to the manifold in a way that will be obvious where they came from or go, the bends from them being attached for so long will give you an idea of where to put them later.

Behind the manifold are three vacuum lines that stay together and run under your battery tray *i think* looking at the rear underside of the intake at the bottom of the metal loom. two connect together off the loom and plug into one vacuum hose. *the lowest point of the three. Disconnect there and leave the other two attached to the loom. Second lowest of the three is a single that connects straight up onto a metal pipe, disconnect. the third highest has a tee in it. disconnect both the hoses at the metal loom. You end up with one sideways pointing and one up pointing hose. This should leave you with only one way to re install them later with no confusions as the higher hose part of the metal loom has one sticking sideways.

Remove the spark plug wires and spark plugs.

Ziploc bag everything that's screws and leave little pieces of paper in the bags.

Unplug hoses from valve cover. leave the one attached to intake manifold.

Remove valve cover. bag and tag.

Disconnect the turbo to exhaust manifold flange bolts. three long and one nut with washers. bag and tag.

Remove the one bolt on the engine hoist bracket that attaches to the power steering pump. bag and tag.

I took the water block with the thermostat off the head completely and disconnected the hoses and wires for space. You can just remove the hoses and wires.

Remove all belts from the alternator , power steering, and ac.

Remove ac belt tensioner. bag and tag.

If it's still there crawl under the car and look up from behind the power steering rack and pinion. youll see a bracket that supports the intake manifold. Use a bunch of extenders and a ratchet or any other means to remove the three bolts holding it on. one on the engine two on the intake... replace later at your discretion. bag and tag.

Bottle jack is now entering the game.

Get a little tension under the oil pan. remove the engine support bracket that's to the right of the cams. remove assembly. use bottle jack to get the bolt out that's vertical over the wheel well. bag and tag.

Under driver side wheel remove crank shaft pulley. bag and tag.

Bottle jack engine up to desired height and remove the water pump pulley. bag and tag.

Lower down bottle jack till ac is almost touching the car body.

Remove all the bolts and lower timing cover. bag and tag.

line up all the timing lines. *will make number one at tdc for ease later*

Loosen/remove timing belt tensioner. bag and tag.

If your going to reuse timing belt mark direction of travel with pen.

Remove timing belt. *use bottle jack as necessary for ease of removal*

I don't loosen the timing belt tensioner pulley unless I'm replacing it.

Remove head bolts in increments of small turns in backwards sequence from tightening down the bolts. replace head bolts.

Make sure the foam pad will rest on the drivers side fender from your hood stand and use a 2x4 closer to the hinge to prop hood open.

Grab a friend and one of you on each side of the head. grab onto the side of the intake and exhaust manifold which is on your side. lift straight up till you clear the one post on the turbo flange. Remove to safety.

Clean surfaces on head and block mating surfaces, turbo to exhaust manifold, and intake mani to head or exhaust mani to head in your replace these. Easier to replace on a workbench out of the car.

Make sure head has cams set to the right markings. Intake on the end of a tooth, exhaust in between two teeth. Pointing together. engine should have number one *far left* at top dead center.

Toss in a new turbo to exaust manifold gasket.

Toss in a new head gasket. with friend line up head over turbo bolt. lower down and line it up over the two guides on the block. *you can look into the head bolt holes to do this if you are a monkey*

Torque to specks.

On the back of the engine, passenger side of the starter, where you removed the bracket supporting the intake manifold, down lower than the bracket you removed, is a lone bolt not holding anything on. *doing this from under the car* unscrew and insert a screw driver. you can feel the weight and notch with the screw driver. spin the oil pump until when the timing marks line up the screw driver goes into the block past the weights. one of three spins of the oil sprocket will let the screw driver through.

all your marks should be lined up except for your cams should be a little off.

Feed timing belt through and around everything and generally ready to go. now line up the exhaust intake cam. exhaust should end up being a half tooth down below the intake. make sure they ar vertical to the head not your line of sight. as the jacked up car will not be level. the line of where the valve coner will sit is a good referance. clamp the left of exhaust and right of the intake so the timing belt doesn't pop off from the tension in the valve springs.

From under the car we are starting on the right, get it around the inside of a timing belt pully and tightly wrap around the oil pump sprocket which should be properly lined up. There is an easier way in the v faq but I don't use it. As tight as you can get it. Now wrap around the crank shaft while it's lined up. double checking the marks on the balance shaft, connected to the crackshaft by a smaller belt, is a good idea. if you can't get it perfect go one tooth counter clockwise so the tensioner will stretch the belt towards it.

Compress timing belt tentioner SLOWLY.. it's a hundred plus dollars to replace if you blow it out. set with allen wrench or similar metal pin through the holes.. I used a c clamp. a bench vise will also work.

Leave the pin in and install it to your block "without any lock thread or atv sealant on the bolt that goes into the oil galley".

If you replaced the timing belt tensioner pulley you can put a socket wrench on it and an allen wrench, small enough to fit in the hole as a pivot point, around the socket to tighten the tension against the belt as you tighten your bolt. It's something like two foot pounds of torque so it needs to be snug against the belt while the arms resting on the closed and pinned hydraulic belt tensioner.

Pull the pin or allen wrench out of the tensioner and remove the clamps off the cams. wait twenty to thirty minutes.

Check all the timing marks and make sure everything is lined up like it's supposed to. Start with the cams level and lined up then check the oil pump and crank shaft.

Make a note on how far off which ones are. Make a note on how many teeth to adjust the crank and oil sprocket. You'll adjust this later.

Measure the ends of two drill bits to check the gap between the tensioner and the arm that the pulleys attached to make sure it's in specs.

Remove tensioner, compress slowly with c clamp and re pin it.

Move exaust cam, crank shaft sprocket, or oil pump sprocket accordingly.

If arm is not in specs loosen the pulley and move what you would guess to what you guess it's off. or re torque with the special tool or allen wrench, with the tensioner back in with the pin in it.

Insall tensioner, pull pin, wate twenty to thirty minutes.

Everything line up? Sweet. Spin the crank shaft six times till all marks line up again.. Still line up? Sweet. leave it lined up. Put clamps on the camshaft sprockets again. And guess what.. Remove the hydraulic tensioner. One of the bolt holes leads to an oil galley. On a 2g it's the left bolt. I put the bolt for the oil hole through the tensioner *that's compressed with the Allen wrench or pin in it* then apply rtv to the top quarter inch of the threads and up the bolt a bit.. Liberally. Then thread locker *a drop* on the threads below the rtv. Crawl under without letting the bolt fall off and ruin your art. make sure to have the other bolt with you too. pull on the arm till you can fit the end of the oil galley bolt into its hole and slide it in. keep pulling on the arm and line up the second bolt and slide it in. tighten to specs.

Pull pin. Wait twenty two thirty minutes. Check that every lines up. It does? Sweet.. Take clamps off the camshafts spin the crank six times. Still line up? Sweet. Re install everything backwards from here on out.

Add coolant and let her idle for a bit. Change your oil and filter.

After you've choked down my bad grammer have a drink. And you've done this before so most of this isn't required. But my fingers just kept on typing.

 

[400hp93talon]

Yup leave the manifolds on it makes it much easier and quite a bit faster to remove!

 

[wickedz]

Derrack

No one is holding anyones hands. I have done this a few times as mentioned in first post, I guess you missed what this thread was about. Here let me hold your hand for this one. I was asking for tips on a FASTER removeal, not how to do the whole job in general. Its ok we all make mistakes sometimes.


Yeah I guess guys when I do it, I will just do it the same way I always do. Thanks for all your help

 

[Derrack]

Sorry if I offended you. In my oppinion that is the fast way to switch out a headgasket. I figured you wanted to know everything you should know without all the stop and go that's usually involved in switching out a head. Just trying to make it painless. *holds wickedz's hand* There were a couple things in there that I would call "quick tips"

As for the bottom bi*** bolt my quick tip is get at it from under the car looking up. Swivel in between two extenders on the ratchet.

 

[wickedz]

nah you didn't offend me. I promise you I wont loose any sleep tonight thanks for the vfaq

 

[Derrack]

No problem. Anything else just pm me.. It's like the bat signal.

 

[wickedz]

Yeah the last one I did, I ended up with all this extra removed stuff, I didnt even need to remove. Theres a 1g 10 min video on a guy removing a head off a 1g turbo. Hard to see, but kinda get idea

 

[92AWDHX40]

Easy way. ive done it so many times, it becomes clock work. The more i did it is when i truly learned the easiest way for me.