The shop was quiet most of the summer but now that the kids are out of the house I’ve had opportunities to ‘get back at it’. In September I made a jig to remove the head which is really nothing more than a one inch thick steel plate about 14″ square. Holes were drilled to line up with the studs for the cylinder head cap studs and the head studs (which took a whole night). The idea was to bolt the plate to the cap head and jack up the entire head by systematically tightening the nuts on underside of the plate. A picture would likely explain it much better than these words.
The first attempt failed. I intentionally used cheap Chinese hardware from Fleetfarm on the plate. The thinking was that the heads might be on very tight and if something was going to fail while forcing the head, I wanted it to be something other than any Kahlenberg parts. The crappy nuts stripped and slid up the studs. My safety net worked but the head was still on the cylinder.
I spent the next month or so trying to come up with a better idea but nothing was materializing. Kurt happened to call me and sent over pictures of the similar method he used which went well. The idea to use the plate was originally his, and I put my own spin on it. He encouraged me to try it again. I used better hardware and this time it worked! By the time I got to the third head it only took a few minutes to have it off.
The crane came in handy. Those heads are heavy.
The pistons will need to come off next but I want to remove the exhaust manifold first. And before I remove the manifold I need to deal with the 4 broken bolts on the end caps. Predictably, drilling and using a big screw extractor failed. In fact I snapped the tap handle in two in what was now my last attempt with that method. Now it will have to be the slow tedious method.
Another piece of progress was on the air compressor piston. Three of the four rings were stuck. This component had suffered water damage and rusted. The piston has been soaking in penetrant since January. I used another Kurt technique and managed to free up the rings using a small soft blow hammer. The rings look to be in very good shape. This was a nice win.
