engine roll- or dowel pins

[Hirsch <Catenary@domain.elided>]

Dear Alfisti,

I helped a friend remove the cylinder head from a '76 Spider
the other day and noticed the block was fit with roll pins,
but that the roll pins are installed flush with the engine
block, instead of protruding about 1/16 inch as they're
supposed to.

(For those that don't know, roll pins are installed in the
block to keep the head gasket O-rings from collapsing, which
will lead to head gasket failure.)

My questions:
1) Should we just drive the existing roll pins further down
into the block and install new ones on top of the old ones?

2) Should we try to remove the old ones with an easyout?
(This seems like a bad idea since the spring steel the pins
are made of will probably fracture and drop shards of steel
into the sump, but I have to ask anyway.)

3) Should I not use roll pins at all and get some of the
tiny rings Alfa Ricambi sells that are slightly smaller
than the O-rings and fits into the O-rings to maintain
the shape of the O-rings?

4) Were roll pins factory installed in engines in '76?

Thanks for any advice,

Rich Hirsch
Editor, i Saluti, St Louis AROC
Website: http://www.catenary.com/victor/isaluti

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