Remove head with exhaust manifold?

[torchroadster]

Any reason I shouldn't try and pull the heads with the exhaust manifolds still attached? I have a water leak into the number 3 cylinder and am finding the exhaust manifold bolts difficult to get out. It looks like the head will come off with the exhaust manifold still attached - am I overlooking something?

93 Explorer, 4.0L, 5 spd.

Thanks.....

 

[shamaal]

It seems feasible, be aware that the heads are on a couple of 10mm rolled pins so they must be lifted rather than slid off. Use long extensions with plenty of PB Blaster on the exhaust ball joint connection. Also, they will be heavy.

When I pulled mine, I had to cut a couple bolts off, and if faced with a similar situation thought I would lift out the heads and headers as an assembly next time.

Don't scrimp on time, take the wheel off and remove the wheelwell tupperware for best access.

Let us know how it works out.

 

[torchroadster]

Thanks for the reply Shamaal - I think I'll give that a go tonight. Seems easier than continuing to fight the manifold bolts. The bolts at the ball joint connection came out very easy - but of course I could get an impact wrench them! Even if I take the inner fender liner out I still don't think I can get a good shot at the rear manifold bolts. The evaporator box is in the way.

Out of curiousity how did you cut your bolts off?

 

[shamaal]

Dremel tool and4 hours for 3 bolts on passenger side and two bolts on driver side. I used a 12 point socket which was a bad choice after I broke my 6 point.

I did not have access to an impact wrench then, it would have made the job a lot easier. I used a breaker bar with an 18' cheater.

I was somewhat fortunate that the leaking oil from my valve covers made some of the akward bolts relatively easier to remove.

 

[torchroadster]

First the head comes off with exhaust manifold just fine:

And I think I've isolated the problem:

But the good news is that it looks like the gasket:

What do you guys think? Clean it up, check for warpage, get it magnafluxed and replace the gasket?

 

[shamaal]

Sounds like a winner to me. Spray WD40 in cylinder after water removal and change oil of course. Use new head bolts.

Good Luck with the magna flux. Depending on finances, consider doing the other side as long as you've gotten this far. Give you a chance to replace the valve seals and reduce any oil consumption.

 

[torchroadster]

Already did the mop up and WD-40 thing.

I'm thinking along the same lines for the other head - pull it, check it and replace the valve stem seals. Only bad thing about taking off the left head is that I need to pull the A/C compressor first - hopefully I'll be able to unbolt it without breaking any of t he line connections.

 

[shamaal]

Yes, you can unbolt the compressor than flip it back out of the way still connected.

If you are sending the heads to a machine shop, they will clean and rebuild. If you bought the felpro head kit bring the stem seals along and give them to them.

I cleaned my heads, tore them down, bagged the parts and when I brought them to the shop, the guy pointed out they were both cracked. The intervalve cracks could only be seen when the heads were dry, i was looking when they were wet.

The point is you may be able to save the cleaning and disassembly mess and let them do it. Take the lower intake manifold along and let them clean that also.

 

[torchroadster]

I finally got this job finished up. I also found a leak in the head gasket on the other cylinder bank. Cylinders 3 and 6 both had water leaks. Took the heads to a machine shop for crack checking and fortunately none were found - they milled the heads flat and I dissassembled the valves and hand lapped them to the head.

Then put it all back together. I used Fel-Pro gaskets, new head bolts, spark plugs, thermostat, and changed the oil and coolant. It runs like a new truck!

No real problems with the job, I did install the spark plugs and exhaust manifolds to the heads before bolting them to the engine. That made things easier. Other than that it was pretty straightforward.

Thank you all for you help and advice.

 

[shamaal]

If you don't mind what was the price for the machine shop and did they perform any service other than milling, like cleaning?

 

[torchroadster]

No I don't mind at all. They only charged me for the crack checking and milling, total for both heads was $95. They cleaned the heads and my intake manifold too - but didn't charge me separately for it. If you want the breakdown between the crack check and milling let me know and I'll dig out the invoice.

I forgot to mention I put on new valve stem seals when I had the valves out to lap them.