Removing the Head

After all of the work so far, my biggest sense of accomplishment came when I removed the cylinder head off the block. This was going to prove to be the most difficult of the pieces to get off so far.  After I removed the valve cover gasket, I began to break loose each of the 12 head bolts on the cylinder head with a hand ratchet. It was very difficult to get each of the bolts off and I bashed my hands and knuckes more than once on the engine once a bolt broke free.  I probably should have worn gloves.
   After the head bolts were removed, I needed to remove the distributor cap and rotor before I could get to the timing chain and finaly remove the head.
   The allan bolts on the distributor rotor started to strip and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get them out but I finaly got them loose and was able to remove it.
    The bolts will need to be replaced when I put it back together.

Close up of the head and head bolts.

Red piece is the distrubtor rotor.

Head once I removed it.

Bare block once head was removed.

The Right Tools

Throughout the project, there have been challenges.  Most of all of the problems I have faced, have had to do with lack of special tools.  I have had a basic set of tools to use, but there have been many other tools I would have liked to have had.  I especially wanted to have an impact drill.  This would be really helpful in removing bolts that are really tight.  These tools have a lot of torque and can assist when a regular drill doesn't work.  Most of these are made to be used with an air compressor, but I want one that is electric so that it is more easily portable.  The best one I was able to find is from Craftsmen.  For auto use, you need a 3/8" size driver not a 1/4" 

When I ran into trouble along the way of dismantling this engine I was lucky enough to be able to  borrow tools from Nate who is my good friend and professional mechanic.  With his tools, what had seemed like an impossible task previously, now was easy.

The best thing I borrowed was a breaker bar, it is a long ratchet that gives you extra leverage and makes easy to remove hard seized bolts.  This was a manual way to remove the bolts that I would have liked to have had the impact drill for.  Breaker bars are readily available at auto supply stores or home hardware stores.  They cost about a quarter to ten percent of what a good electric impact drill does.

This was the breaker bar I used.

Valve Cover and Progress Update

Dismantling the  engine has come along great.  I have the intake manifold off, along with the starter and the thermostat. It is really important that I keep track of each piece or bolt I take off of the engine so that when the time comes to put it back together I can do that.  I am documenting and putting all of the parts and bolts for each part into a plastic bag with notes so that i will be able to put everything back together and know where everything goes.

The next thing I have to do to take apart the engine is to remove the cylinder head. To start I need to remove the valve cover to get to the head bolts. The valve cover is very easy to remove it doesn't take any specialized tools just a ratchet and a socket set. Once the valve cover is removed you can see into the cylinder head and the engine looks very bare and exposed.

Engine as it sits without intake manifold.

Bags for organization.

Engine with valve cover gasket removed.

The Oil Change

I decided before I do much more work on the engine I should drain the oil. This was something I needed to do and it didn't sound like a hard task, I had changed oil countless times but this time was a little different. The engine wasn't in a car so it wasn't off the ground and to empty the oil of the engine you need to remove the oil drain plug on the underside of the engine and once the plug is removed you need the engine to be off the ground so you can catch the oil in a bucket. This is where it got interesting, I was by myself and had to lift the 500 pound beast off the ground. I used the engine hoist to lift the engine and then i used a milk crate and two 2x4's to support the transmission and keep the engine stable so all the oil would drain. I had to pick up the transmission by myself without the help of the engine hoist and kick the milk crate under.

Starting to lift the engine.

Engine suspended and resting on milk crate.

Oil draining and engines current progress.

Removing the intake manifold.

The first thing I set off to do when I got the engine home and finally out of the car was to separate the transmission and the engine so that I could put the engine on the stand and have a easy place to work on it. That was the first problem I ran into.  It turns out that the bolts used to hold the transmission on to the rest of the engine were an obscure shape called a torx head.  This is a common shape on auto bolts, instead of a regular hex shaped bolt, this is a star shape. 

Because once again, I didn't have the right tools I couldn't remove the transmission.  I wanted to start here so I could get the engine up on the stand, but I decided to get started on the engine instead.  In order to properly rebuild this engine I would have to remove all the parts so until I was able to get the Torx wrenches I thought I would get started.

The first part of the engine I decided to remove was the intake manifold. The intake manifold was held on by 12 bolts on six on the top and six on the bottom. The bolts on top were very easy to remove and were pretty easy to break loose with a ratchet and a 10mm socket. The bottoms were harder to remove because of limited clearance and visibility.  I couldn't use a ratchet and instead I had to use a wrench to loosen all of the bolts. Once the bolts were removed the intake manifold lifted right off.

I carefully labeled all of the bolts and set to the side. 

Top view of the engine and intake manifold.

Close-up of intake manifold bolts and fuel injectors.

Close up of intake manifold bolts on the underside.