stuck 2000 head followup (too long)

["Watry, Andrew (LNG-SFR)" <Andrew.Watry@domain.elided>]

I sought help last week on getting the stuck head off my 73 2000 Berlina,
and got a number of helpful replies from the Digest and elsewhere (thanks
Fred, Brian, Doug, Dana, Erik, and any others I may have forgotten).  I
finally got the darn thing off Friday, and wanted to follow up for any folks
interested.  I'll give the short version here, but can elaborate at more
length about details off-digest if anyone's interested.

In brief, this was a stock 73 2000 engine, probably not taken apart in a
long time. It had good antifreeze in it, but who knows what's happened over
the past 20 years.  I was getting antifreeze clouds out the exhaust, and
spitting antifreeze out the spark plug holes when spinning the motor over,
so I felt the head gasket or head needed attention.

After unbolting everything, the head simply would not budge.  I have one
factory head removal tool, and alternating it back and forth across the
various head studs did not help.  I borrowed another head removal tool from
Norman Racing, and with the two tools, I was able in about two hours to get
the head up as high as you can go before the studs become flush with the top
of the head, about 3/4".  At that point the factory tool can't do any more.
I had soaked the head studs, rocked the head, pounded on the studs, scraped
corrosion as best I could, etc., but the head wouldn't move up any further.
Several people suggested blocks and tackles or hoists to lift the cam cap
studs, but I didn't have a hoist, and worried about ripping the caps off.
Also, the rope and compression tricks wouldn't help when the head was off
the block by that distance.

I was at a loss at this point, but Norman Racing suggested getting
progressively longer bolts to drop down into the stud holes, and continuing
to use the factory head tools to press against.  This took a little
manipulating, but proved to work.  I bought a bunch of 5/16" bolts ranging
from 1/2" up to 4 1/2" and slow pulled the damn head up.  Right at the end I
had another bout of stuckedness on one side, because the rolled threads on
the studs are wider than the underthreaded part, and serious corrosion at
the bottom of the head blocked the studs coming out the last 1/4".  Letting
the head back down a bit, rocking, scraping, and just forcing it a bit
finally broke it free.  It's by far the toughest head I've ever removed, and
the amount of corrosion caked on the studs, eaten into the head sealing
surface, and floating around in the water jacket are remarkable.  The head
gasket looked like a lace and was literally falling apart.  Amazing the car
ran as well as it did.  The block and liners look OK. I'm unsure if the head
will get a clean bill of health, but it's going to Norman Racing today for
examination.  Certainly it will get a valve job, but if the corrosion is too
bad I'll have to find another head.

In sum, the things that worked were (1) two factory head pullers, (2) many
bolt lengths to extend the reach of the puller, and (3) moving the head up
and down a few times on the studs once it was somewhat free, and cleaning
off as much corrosion as possible, to let the studs clear the hole in the
head.  I spent probably five hours fighting it, after all the nuts bolts,
etc. were removed.  If ever there was an negative endorsement for using the
right water, plus antifreeze, this is it.  Plus a good head gasket. This was
a cheap aftermarket gasket.  That said, at least it waited til I was home to
fail, rather than in the middle of the 900-mile drive from Phoenix.

Andrew Watry
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