Cylinder head removal

[93rev2sev]

the old head gasket was pealed off, buth how much of the old head gasket material must i remove from the head and block before installing the new one?

100%.

You can use a razor on the block, but the head needs more care. I took mine to a machine shop and had them use their head resurfacing machine. It's basically a large belt sander. 25 seconds per head and they were ready to be sprayed down and bolted on. Do NOT use a scuffy pad on any sort of rotary tool. You CAN use a really large flat file once you've got the majority of it off.

When you're done cleaning up and you are ready to bolt the head back on, rotate the assembly and when each piston hits BDC, clean and oil the bore. Use acetone or non-chlorintated brake cleaner as a final cleaning for the block and head mating surface. Blue shop towels should be off limits for this step. Use a combination of air and vacuum to remove any little specs that might still be there.

You want to have a machine shop go over the head that leaked. These resurfacing machines that they use will get the head really flat, really fast.

 

[sdpatt]

Well, the SHO lives. She was reassembled yesterday evening and fired up. She wouldn't idle until I reattached the idle air control valve electrical connector (oops - I hope that is the only thing left undone). There were no water or oil leaks, but time will tell what other after effects may appear. I will likely post a new topic with pictures.

The upper and lower 60K services that were done concurrently seemed quite minor in comparison. I was also able to repair a broken valve cover bolt using a dirll, an easy out and a welded extended-thread valve cover bolt to reach the Heli-Coil that had been screwed in too deep in a previous repair. The Loc-Tite 640 Sleeve retainer adhesive appears to work very well on the crank cancer damper and timing belt sprocket. The damper now has a very snug interference fit. The sprocket was so tight that it did not budge when I tried the damper puller to get it off the shaft.

Long live the SHO.