Even in the shop with seasoned veterans of this operation it is sometimes impossible to remove stuck cylinders from heads without pulling the whole lot out together. If that turns out to be the case, there are some sneaky tricks I can turn you on to - I was looking for an earlier post of mine that describes the process, but couldn't find it. Since it's a bit involved, I'll treat it as "need to know" info - and you don't need it yet. Getting the heads unstuck is always a matter of prying the tabs on the cylinders away from the heads (although I can imagine a special hydraulic tool that would do the job, I haven't seen it yet). It's important to note that you want to pry BOTH cylinders out at the same time. You need a high incidence of leverage, but getting under both of the middle tabs of the two cylinders at once helps keep the tool properly engaged with the work. It's like having the perfect screwdriver for the screw - much less likely to pop out of the slot. To do this, the prying device needs to be a near-perfect fit for the job, and to that end I always wind up making one - since the last one I made has usually been used as a punch or welded into some other project by the time I need it again. My raw material of choice for this tool is concrete form spikes, available from Home depot, but any proper sized steel bar or rod stock will do. The spike I refer to is about 1/2" in diameter and a foot and a half long. I grind one end on a bench grinder so that I wind up with a flat pointed end, like a wood chisel, but I make the angled face rounded. This face goes against the head and acts like a rocker (to give leverage across a wider range of movement than a flat face would do) while you pry against BOTH tabs of the two cylinder heads at the same time. If you sliced the letter D in half horizontally across the middle and welded the top half of the D to top of the letter H, you'd get roughly the profile of the tool I'm struggling to describe. Good luck, go slow, watch what's happening VERY carefully. You don't want to slip off one side and/or break one of the tabs off. Then you'll have no choice but plan B (the secret one). I heartily recommend against using chisels and other bludgeonry for this job, as broken or rounded-over cylinder tabs are a common result.
-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf Of Mike Collum Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2001 6:27 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Separating heads from cylinders
I'm trying to remove the heads from my '84 GL but they are REALLY stuck to the cylinders. I don't want to remove the jugs unless I absolutely have to. (Engine in vehicle). What has worked for you folks? Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Mike |
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