GTV6 Head Removal

[Ron J Horowitz <RonHorowitz@domain.elided>]

Hi Tony!

I hope you don't have as much trouble as I did! =


For what it's worth, One of the heads on my GTV6 wouldn't budge. Nothing
would get it off. I tried every solvent and penetrant known to man: Liqui=
d
Wrench, R.G.S., Croil, etc., etc., etc. all to no avail. I tried everythi=
ng
from a Bernzomatic propane torch to a 3500 BTU space heater. Forget about=

it.

Putting rope down the plug holes got the head to unseat from the block, b=
ut
when I hooked up an engine hoist to the head and pulled parallel to the
studs, all that happened was the car lifted off the ground! I tried leavi=
ng
the car floating there for a couple of weeks. Every time I walked by I'd
hose the studs down with penetrant, give the studs a healthy few raps wit=
h
a dead blow hammer, threaten to dent one of her fenders if she didn't
behave, and hope for the best. Nothing much happened, except that I got a=

notice from the city to quit screwing around with that stupid old car!

I was advised that a stud extractor would just shear the studs in the
block, which would then have to be EDM'd out, so I decided not to try to
pull the studs.

The ONLY thing that worked, was to have a machinist friend of mine (The
Honorable Wes Conklin) fabricate a tool that fit in the spark plug holes
similar to the one used on the four cylinder cars. I worked the head up a=

millimeter at a time, flushed out as much of the threads as possible, the=
n
took a big, dead blow hammer and worked the head back down. By repeating
this about a million times, straining, sweating, and cussing all the whil=
e,
I managed to get the head about two inches off the block.

At this point, I was tempted to fit a big pair of two by fours between th=
e
block and the head. By standing inside the engine bay with the engine hoi=
st
straining on the head, and jumping up and down on the end of the 2x4's as=

hard as I could, I managed, after about two days, (much to my neighbor's
amusement, by the way) to get a pair of sore feet, a sweaty, red face, an=
d
a couple of broken 2x4's.

Sticking to the head pulling tool, working the head back and forth, and
flushing out the studs finally got the head to come free. And a glorious
time it was. Dancing, singing, merryment. =


And it only took three or four months! If I knew then what I know now, (o=
r
if I wasn't such a stubborn bastard to begin with,) I'd have thrown the
engine away and bought a 3 liter. If I had to bill myself for my time,
taking the old head off would have been about a ten thousand dollar job, =
so
think of the money I'd have saved!

GOOD LUCK!!!!!

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