Well I finally got the head off the GT6. Oh what a joy. Had the usual
stuck head bolt, you know the ONE stud that seems to be welded to the head.
After trying to break the 'seal' of the head gasket with the 'rope in the
cylinder' method (which worked eventually but I have to wonder about banging
the bearings with just the oil left on the journals) Head's still stuck,
frozen to that stud! Damn!! I still couldn't remove that one stud. Silly me
I thought this would be an easy job. HA. . . Damn stud. . . Hummmmm the two
nut method, which worked for all the other studs ain't workin here! I
know, I'll weld the nut onto the stud! Can't come off then right! Fire up
the torch, sparks-a-flyin, muttering I'll show you , you little ba*&#*d.
Yeah that'll do it, Yep that puppy ain't-a-commin off now!! Wow still a
little red, better let that puppy cool off, time for a cool one anyway.
Back to the stud, cooled off now. Get the old breaker bar out, confidence
high, apply much torque, stud slowly starts turning. Snap, bang, OUCH,
S*@T, C*&P, Ahhh, More explicitave deletives. Neighbor peers out of window,
not sure what that look means, but appears to be holding hands over young
child's ears. Result - snapped stud even with the top of the head, busted
knuckles, All hopes dashed to the ground! Oh woe's me, Why do I have this
masochist desire, I've done this for too many years to know better! Sit on
tire (you can do this on Spits, and GT6's, with the bonnet up of course)
Look disparagingly at the broken stud/head combination. small tear emerging
from right eye. Hummmmm. . .pull, pry ,lever, jump up and down swearing,
this stud is frozen in this head and this head is not coming off! But, the
head turns with stud intact. Hummmm, just enough room to turn the head if I
bend this clutch pipe just enough to clear, Hummmm. . . well I'll have to
remove the distributor, alternator, radiator, that little clamp holding the
glass bowl on the fuel pump. Man I was hoping to avoid all this! YES. . .
JUST clears the body, well sort of, heck a little touch up paint and you
wont even know. (third stud from the front, right) Continue rotating head as
if it were a wrench. YEAH, VICTORY! Yhew these big'ol castings are heavy!
Carry (with resulting back damage) over to table. Pound furiously on
offending remnant of stud (satisfying some sort of repressed anger). SLOWLY,
finally releasing its grip, drops to ground with a shower of carbon. And
just as I thought, cracked valve! But I got it off, have all the parts for
a complete valve job to upgrade to a no-lead head. A little port matching,
combustion chamber grinding/polishing. Man this will be one sweet running
motor when it all goes back together! Sure am glad I decided to take the
head off. Guess it was worth it after all :-)! I'ts off to the machine
shop tomorrow! Yes life is good -
Barry Schwartz
Bschwartz@encad.com (work)
Bschwart@pacbell.net (home)
(San Diego)
70' Spitfire (under-going major surgery) , 72'-V6 Spitfire (daily driver)
70'GT6+
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