Cant get head off of WD??

Anonymous-0 · Nov 14, 2012

Iv got a WD im working on and have ran into a little bit of a problem.I pulled the vavle rocker shaft,took all the bolts out,removed the manifold,and the water pipe.Iv tapped on the side of the head and tried prying on it a bit and it wont move at all..Any suggestions?

old · Nov 14, 2012

If your not worried about making a mess then do this and it will work. Fill the cylinders with oil put the plugs back in and then use the starter to spin it over. The head then has to move due to the hyd effect

Ralph 1111 · Nov 14, 2012

OLD Would water in place of oil???????
Seames like it would make less of a mess.

Aaron SEIA · Nov 14, 2012

If you are positive you have all the bolts out, then pry harder. It can take some real brute force to pop them loose. I wonder if you could pull the #1 or 4 plug and chuck up an air compressor and see if that'd pop one end loose.
AaronSEIA

old · Nov 14, 2012

Problem with water is rust and the one thing you do not want in an engine is rust and if the head did not come off then you have water in it and no way to get all the water out. Now if you had said fill the cylinders with a small diameter rope that will also work

Anonymous-0 · Nov 14, 2012

if you removed all the bolts(including the three 3/8'' ones then maybe try to pry it with something or try to inert something between head and block into the head gasket being careful not to damage machined surfaces. maybe someone in the past used sealant on the head gasket

Will Herring · Nov 14, 2012

(quoted from post at 21:55:02 11/14/12) If your not worried about making a mess then do this and it will work. Fill the cylinders with oil put the plugs back in and then use the starter to spin it over. The head then has to move due to the hyd effect

No danger of mucking up rods or pistons doing this if she won't give? Wouldn't it be better to spin her with the hand crank to keep the spin slow if you did this? Just curious.

I figure the issue is that the old head gasket has become like a super bond between the head and the block. I had the same problem taking an old carb off my WD. Basically had to use a block of wood so I could hit the top side with a hammer to knock the carb off -- and it was just a small, old paper gasket that had fused the two pieces of metal together.

Anonymous-0 · Nov 15, 2012

For safety sake, if you do use the starter to pop the head off, put some bolts in the head, loosely. You don't have to use the head bolts, but put some in that are of similar length, leave about 1/4" loose. That way when the head pups off, it doesn't slide to the side, and land on the floor!

rustyfarmall · Nov 15, 2012

(quoted from post at 18:33:09 11/14/12) Iv got a WD im working on and have ran into a little bit of a problem.I pulled the vavle rocker shaft,took all the bolts out,removed the manifold,and the water pipe.Iv tapped on the side of the head and tried prying on it a bit and it wont move at all..Any suggestions?

You've already got the manifold off. Stick a pry bar into one of the exhaust ports in the head and lift. I usually use my 1/2" drive breaker bar.

If that doesn't work, put the spark plugs back in and then bump the starter. Forget filling the cylinders with oil. The compression alone should do the trick.

BushogPapa · Nov 15, 2012

We had an old Ford truck with a Flathead V-8 and it needed re-built...
Dad took all the head bolts out and the heads would not come off..I guess they had been "Permatexed"..

He drove it up and down the road with the head bolts all loose and they never did come off..
Scrapped that engine...
"I am not a fan of Permatex"..!!!

Ron..

old · Nov 15, 2012

With the cylinders filled with oil the starter can not produce enough torque to hurt any of the engine parts due to the fact it does not get up to full speed before it hits the hyd lock so it safe for popping a head off

WEL · Nov 15, 2012

A pipe in the manifold hole has always worked for me. Use common sense when doing this as not to damage anything.

lee231 · Nov 15, 2012

Had a head I couldn"t get off once. I had to hook it up to an engine hoist, had the tractor front off the ground and still wouldn"t come loose, ended up using a rose bud playing along the top of the head and when it got nice and warm it popped loose. Turned it was put on with permatex. HTH"s. Lee

Uncle Ernie · Nov 16, 2012

Forget water or oil. Feed a piece of rope in thru a spark plug hole and let it pile up on top the piston. Then roll it over until the piston pushes the rope against the head. Way better than a liquid!

Cant get head off of WD??

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

old

Well-known Member

Ralph 1111

Member

Aaron SEIA

Well-known Member

old

Well-known Member

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

Will Herring

Well-known Member

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

rustyfarmall

Well-known Member

BushogPapa

Well-known Member

old

Well-known Member

WEL

Member

lee231

Member

Uncle Ernie

Member

Similar threads