Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2002 09:24:11 -0800
Reply-To: gary hradek <hradek@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: gary hradek <hradek@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: DCL
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Brian,
I am at the early stages of the dreaded coolant
leakon the right side. Since things are fresh in your
mind I have a few questions. 1)Do you think that if
I remove the pushrod cover and spray lubricant on the
outside of the gasket and drive the van, repeating
this procedure many times, not getting the van too
hot that I can increase my chances of pulling the head
from the cylinder. Kind of a rust buster approach?
2) What position should the crank be in to best avoid
the problem of the cylinder pulling past the rings?
3) If I do pull past the rings would there be any
advantage to replacing the rings?
4) Did you reuse your pushrod tubes?
5) How much of the exhaust system did you remove?
6) Where did you get your new gasket and what other
parts might be replaced at the time this work is being
done. any help appreciated, thanks gary
Date: Sat, 7 Dec 2002 12:16:54 -0800
From: Brian Spisak <bspisak@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Success! (Cylinder install after removal
stuck to head)
I sit here elated less than 5 minutes after
resinstalling my cylinder
after
I removed it from the engine stuck to my head. After
reading the
archives,
I was lead to believe that this was a near impossible
task to perform,
especially on the smaller clearance number 1 or 4
cyclinders. Maybe I
got
lucky, but I must say that the 20 minutes it took to
do is by far a
much
better option than struggling trying to get the
cylinder unstuck over
the
course of 3 days. I still wouldn't recommend pulling
the cylinder
unless it
is truly stuck, so do your best, but if worst comes to
worst, don't be
afraid to give this method a shot. (To free my
cylinder, even with out
on
the bench, I had to heat the head with a torch, and
slam the thing with
a
heavy mallet - ouch!)
For those who might benefit in the future here's how
it worked:
Buy a plier type ring compressor set. You can get
these on eBay for
under
$30 or you can buy an expensive name brand. I used
the cheap eBay
ones, and
the only thing I caution is not to over-tighten the
band as they will
crack
if you do. I was using a size too big, so it didn't
stop the job. I
ended
up using the 3-3/8 - 3-5/8 size.
Get the piston TDC. Clean the piston and rings.
Offset the rings 90
degrees. Position the band so that its ears are
between the top and
bottom
head bolts in the center of the block. This allows
you to put the
pliers on
and angle them out of the way of the cylinder as you
push it on. Pull
the
adjacent cyclinder just out of its seat so you can get
a little play in
it.
You'll need all the room you can get for the cylinder
to clear the
pliers!
Clamp the band down, leaving the top edge of the
piston exposed to get
the
cylinder started. If one side of your pliers is lower
profile than the
other, make sure this side is toward the piston. (The
pivot bolt on my
protruded more on one side and interferred just enough
that I had to
reverse
them.) Push the cylinder on slowly checking top and
bottom to make
sure the
rings are compressed and sliding in. Once the
cylinder hits the
pliers, it
gets tight, and you have to bump the cylinder gently
in. I resisted
using a
mallet, and instead used the palm of my hand to avoid
damaging the
rings if
they were hung up. As long as it keeps moving you are
fine. Push the
cylinder on just to the point the bottom ring is
inside. To get the
band
off, I had to push it to the bottom of the cylinder
until I could push
the
ear of the band in enough to clear the head bolt. If
the cylinder were
down
any farther than it was, I couldn't have got it out.
Once one of the
ears
of the compressor band is past the head bolt, you can
expand it enough
(just
barely!) to get it to slide over the entire cylinder
to get it out.
Go here to see my diagram of where to position the
band.
http://www.geocities.com/bsassone/vanagon/ringband.bmp
Brian
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