>
> timke at microsoft writes:
>
> > Sunday: pull off the carbs, manifolds, etc. and try to pull off the
> > head. It won't move. Use all the tricks described in the Haynes
> > manual. It won't move. Swear at it and beat on it with a 2x4.
> > It won't move. Four hours later, 4 of us (thank god for brothers :-) )
> > had it off. The exhaust valves on 3 and 4 both have holes in them,
> > so I pack the head in the Valiant for a trip to the machine shop.
>
> Back in 1985 I used to have a Mk4 Spit. Over the Christmas vacation I decided
> to give the head a decoke so me and my brother stripped of all the manifolds
> etc but the head wouldn't budge. Did all the Haynes tricks too with hammers -
> even connected the battery any turned the engine over to see if it would
> loosen it - no joy. Maybe we've been stupid and left something connecting
> the two together. Asked our mates, local garages and even rang up some Triumph
> specialists accross the country but it should be coming off! Finally, after
> a couple of days of trying we reconnect the carbs and electrics and start the
> car - even with the engine running the head is fixed!!!!!
>
I think I've told this story here before, so a thousand pardons to those who
have already heard it, but with this thread I think it bears repeating.
When I was working in the Jaguar shop, we had this V-12 E roadster in to
have both heads replaced. The guy who was working on it (not me) had every-
thing unbolted without problems, and went to pull the heads off. Neither
would budge. He tried hammering on them, cursing at them, penetrating oil,
more cursing, more penetrating oil, they still wouldn't budge. So he took
the engine hoist and attached it to one head, and jacked it up. The car
dutifully lifted off the ground. He then decided that it was time to get
serious, so he got up on a strategic part of the front frame and started
jumping up and down. Still wouldn't budge. Everyone tried removing the
head (perhaps in the mistaken belief that like the sword in the stone that
only the trueborn SOL could lift off the head), still didn't budge. The
owner of the shop started offering anyone who walked in the door $100 if
they could get either head off. No one succeeded. Finally the owner of the
shop tried arc-welding each of the studs, the theory being that it would
zap the corrosion around each of them. This worked, all of the studs were
free, and could be backed out, but still the head would not come off. The
car sat in our shop a long time (3 or 4 weeks) with those heads stuck on
there and no one being able to do anything to get them off. Finally the
guy who originally started the job decided to try putting rope inside
the cylinders (through the spark plug holes). The method was to feed in
some rope, run the starter for a few revolutions to compress the rope,
and feed in more rope. Eventually this worked, but it took him a day and
a half of rope feeding. Turned out that the gasket on both heads had blown
very badly across several cylinders and water passages. The car had
obviously been driven for thousands of miles after the head gasket blew,
the passages made by the steam were that deep. His heads weren't rebuildable,
he had to get new heads.
Joe
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