When removing the heads, would it help to position the cylinders at a certain point from TDC to avoid movement of the cylinders?

Others have suggested tapping the heads with a mallet to free the cylinder from the head.

Any other tricks or tips are welcome.

Ken M. Toronto, On 87GL

-----Original Message----- From: mark drillock [mailto:drillock@EARTHLINK.NET] Sent: Saturday, March 16, 2002 8:12 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Re: Cylinder Heads!

If the cylinders pulled off far enough to expose any of the rings you are in for it. It is really important to not allow this to happen but it sometimes does anyway.

In order to get the cylinder to slide back in over the expanded rings you need to use something to squeeze the rings back into their grooves. Then it needs to slide down the piston as you push the cylinder over the rings one by one. After all 3 rings on that piston are back inside the cylinder you need to be able to remove the tool you used to compress the rings. This is the tricky part as there is very little room to do anything after the cylinder is back over the rings.

I used a large hose clamp to compress the rings. I looked around at different hardware stores till I found one just wide enough to cover all 3 rings. It did not completely cover the outer rings but enough to compress them. Position the clamp screw area such that you can get to it after the rings are back in the cylinder. I used a small ratcheting 90 degree screwdriver. Oil the rings and piston first so the hose clamp will slide out of the way as you work the cylinder back on. After the rings are covered you unscrew the hose clamp completely and pull it out. I tied heavy fishing line to it before I used it so I would be able to pull the clamp out after it was was unscrewed.

Turn the crank so the piston you are working on is sticking out as far as possible. TDC. Before you turn the crank rig something to keep any other exposed cylinders from moving.

Good luck, be patient and use enough lighting to see what you are doing.

Mark

Chris Winesette wrote: > > Ok I think i'm in big trouble. I just removed one of the heads to fix the > gasket leak and when I pulled the head off the cylinders stuck to it. Do I > have to pull the engine to get fix this. Any advise would be great.