head swap

[cdg1984]

So im getting ready to do a head swap. Ive never done this before, but a friend of mine claims to know what hes doing, but hes a little bit of a bragger, so he may not know as much as he claims to. So to make sure nothing gets messed up, can someone give me a brief walk thru of how this is done? I would really appreciate it, thanks.

 

[pontiacgp]

I suggest you pick up a good engine building book so you can read thru the section for heads and reference it while you're doing the swap.

 

[cdg1984]

Good thinking GP

 

[bigtmoney]

Don't forget to mark your distributor and take pics of the top of the engine so you can reconnect your wires.

The head bolts take a good bit of force to break free so have a pipe or something handy to give yourself a little help.

Keep plenty of clean rags handy to collect all the water in the heads and use a screwdriver to gently pry the heads from the block being careful not to dump the coolant from the heads down into the cylinders.

 

[pontiacgp]

to drain the coolant from the block there is a drain bolt (9/16) on each side of the block.

 

[cdg1984]

Ill have impact tools. Thanks for the coolant tip. Im gonna try to get this done this weekend, whish me luck!

 

[dirtywhiteboy]

It's pretty straight forward. The parts that people get in trouble with is adjusting the lifters and getting the dizzy back in time.
Keep in mind if you adjust the lifters before setting the dist back in, it will be different.

Good luck

 

[RITTER]

What is it you're working on :?:

 

[pontiacgp]

Keep in mind if you adjust the lifters before setting the dist back in, it will be different.

I havn't heard of that before, why would the adjustment be different if it was done with no distributor?

 

[MrLightning]

Keep in mind if you adjust the lifters before setting the dist back in, it will be different.

I dont think that information is correct. adjusting your lifters? (if you have roller rockers, yes) and putting your distributor in for timing purposes are two seperate occurences.