problem with heads

[callcameron]

I am not a mechanic by any sense of the word but I have been doing this work with my uncle looking over my shoulder. I had a cracked radiator which caused my explorer to overheat. I changed the radiator and thermostat and thought that I hadn't done any damage to the heads. When I got all done, I let my wife drive it for a couple of days. Later, I noticed a lot of white smoke coming from the exhaust pipe. I was told that this usually means that the head gasket is blown. I have been following the instructions in the Hayne's manual to change them. However, I am having trouble getting the exhaust manifolf off. I cannot get the six bolts that attachit to the heads loose. I have even tried impact driver, but I'm afraid of stripping them. Any suggestions or tricks? If not, anybody know of a good cliff I can push it off of? Thanks for any help.

 

[mrboyle]

I haven't pulled the heads on a X, but on many of the other vehicles i have worked on I leave the manifold attached to the head and unbolt it from the head pipe. Then you just remove the head with the manifold attached.

 

[james t]

i have no idea if this will help you or not, but its worth a try. drive it around the block a few times, to heat up the manifold and its bolts. then they should all break loose with an impact or a short "breaker bar". i had to do this on a previous vehicle, and it was the only way i could get them to break loose.

 

[Raceit]

When I took mine off I was able to work on other things in the engine. So for about a day and a half I kept spraying the bolts with Liquid Wrench about every 30 minutes. I got all of them off with a hand ratchet and didn't break any of them.

 

[gorilla]

I know at least the top 3 bolts on the exhaust have to come out! I would do the Liquid Wrench thing and avoid driving it while you are doing that. The heating and cooling action really kills trying to loosen the bolts. I would definately not use an impact wrench, too much torque! When I replaced my heads on 1 of the 4 replacement engine exchages, I had two on each side that the head snapped off. So, hope you have a rethreading kit... Good luck!