UNLUCKY?

[RedZR]

Did you encounter any trouble getting the cam cover bolts out?

Dan

Originally Posted by ßill

A little more progress. The cams are out, I hope I can get them pack in correctly. Here is a picture of the head with out the cams.


and just for you Brian, I pulled the 2 “lifters” out. The top one is an intake the lower one is an exhaust. They look the same to me, but that is where they came from.

[Bill]

I stripped the head one camcover bolt and one injector housing bolt. Had to drill the head off of both then use vice grips to remove the stud. I have not tried to replace them yet.

[WB9MCW]

Thnx Bill for the pic's of the pushers er ah I mean lifters!! funny lookin critters they are...

[blackjack]

just came back from moose hunting(no luck),and i feel i had to add my 2 cents here,as this happens quite frequently in my line of work(motorcycles)
there are three possibilities here...
1-the screw will go out through the exhaust(it happens)
2-the screw will inbed in the soft aluminum of the head(most likely)
3-the screw will jam in a valve,causing the engine to run very funny.although the owner will NOT find that funny at all...
problems 2 and 3 require removal of the head(sorry)
if the screw gets stuck in the head,it will not (ever) come out with a magnet...i know...i tried...(sorry)
the ticking sound is (usually) the piston touching the inbedded screw at tdc
best of luck
blackjack
91/1735

[Bill]

I suspect the screw has found a home imbedded in the head. The last time it was running the engine ran smoothly just made that ticking sound. I haven’t made much progress this last couple of days. I can’t believe how tight the head bolts are (maybe I’m just getting old). So far I’ve used 4 different air impact guns and broken one brand new 18 mm 6 pt Craftsman socket and only gotten 2 bolts out. The impact guns have not worked at all, a ½ inch breaker bar with a 36 inch hander is what broke the 2 bolts loose and broke the socket. Another surprise for me was the size of the head bolts they are the longest I’ve ever seen.

[leonardpower]

The only way to do a job good it to pull the motor. if it goes well should only take about a day with the right equipment. With the motor out the cam timing can be done far easier than in the vehicle, also the cam covers can be fitted alot easier and less chance of the leaking particuly from the rear sealing plugs. I have seen these screws come out before and unfortunately they tend to get inbeded in the squish area of the head and piston.

[Bill]

Here is the latest update. Today was a good day after fighting with head bolts for a week I got them all out. Tried 4 different ½” drive air impact wrenches and one ¾” impact wrench, none of them worked. The head bolts are 9” long all the impact wrenches did was to flex the bolt. The only thing that worked was a good 6pt impact socket and a long breaker bar (36”), lots of sweat and one smashed thumb.



When the head came off I had to look very close to find the screw. The next picture is the piston down in the cylinder, I see some nicks I don’t think there serious.



The next picture is the #7 combustion chamber. It’s a little fuzzy but if you look close you can see the screw near the bottom of the page close to the right exhaust valve




Last one is the culprit removed from the head. As you can see it does not take much to make bad noises and cause bad things to happen to our engine




So now to clean up and put it back together

Good job on the extraction.

Now might be the time to refinish the exterior while you have it apart.

[RedZR]

Wow !! That's amazing. It looks as if there was no real damage to the liner, piston or head. What's the plan- to simply put it back together?

Also, how does the head gasket look and what type of coolant were you using (sorry- I had to ask)?

Dan

[Bill]

I think I’ll pass on the PC job at this time, Jeff, I have not pulled the engine so the right side cam cover would be a PIA to get off with out further disassembly of the car. The wife’s ’90 vert helps a little with the vette addiction but I want my car back on the road.

Dan I was very pleased to find the minimal damage. My plan is to clean things up a bit, smooth down any rough edges, new gaskets and belts and reassemble. I bought the car 2 1/2 years ago with 85K miles, it had the green stuff in it then and I’m still using about 10% green stuff with water wetter. The head gasket is a little rough around the coolant passages near the bottom of the head. Don’t know what caused it.