Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2008 12:48:28 -0400
Reply-To: Wesley Pegden <greenvanagon@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Wesley Pegden <greenvanagon@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Head removal: Cylinder sleeves came off (also,
how to send gerry messages)
Of course disaster strikes whenever gerry is broken! I think I finally
figured out a way to get my plea for help to the vanagon list (details at
the bottom).
My head job went really well until it came time to actually pull off the
heads. The cylinder sleeves seemed practically welded on, and no amount of
pounding/torching/prying would separate them from the heads. After trying
again this morning, I gave up and removed the heads with the sleeves. I'm
looking for advice on what I've gotten myself into...
Removing the engine for me isn't really an option since my repairs are done
in the parking lot in front of our small apartment.
I was looking through this article which seems to cover the head + cylinder
sleeve replacement leaving the engine in the van:
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:ahde4VMwiCUJ:gerry.vanagon.com/files/technical/how-to/head-gasket-replacement.txt+herb.says+head.gasket&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a
It references a snap-on tool with some modifications. Looking around on
thesamba, I found some references to a simpler tool that supposedly works
better, an "EMPI 88-94mm ring compressor". My problem is I don't know where
I might be able to find this locally, and I really don't want to wait till
mid-next week to put things back together. I am already resigned to waiting
till monday, though, since that's when I can get piston rings and I feel
it's foolish to have come this far and not change the rings.
Is there any thing else I should know about what I've gotten myself into?
My plan now is...
1. get the sleeves out of the heads now that I have the heads removed
2. remove the old piston rings
3. use a broke piece of old piston ring to clean out the ring grooves on the
piston (suggested in the haynes manual)
4. clean the mating surface on the block where the head gasket goes
5. Wait till monday when I can get rings at the local foreign auto parts
store, hopefully have found a suitable ring compressor, and put everything
back together.
(I already have a set of heads that have been to the machine shop ready to
go in place of the old ones.)
Even reading the article I linked to above, I'm still unclear on step 5...
specifically, how I'm going to get the pistons into the cylinders. (I
compress the rings and push the piston in... how does the ring compressor
come back out? I just can't really picture any of this right now...)
I would really appreciate any advice!!
Since Gerry is broken, please reply to me personally.
Thanks very much for any help!!!!!
Wes
If you want to call (for example, maybe you are local and have the tool I
need??), my phone number is in this file:
http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~wes/phone.txt
By the way, this is an 83 1.9l, ~90,000 miles
HOW I SENT THIS MESSAGE
gerry's domain name resolution is down for some reason, and his ip address
seems to be refusing messages as well. I sent this message using the online
interface (available as the envelope icon when you are viewing a message in
the archives). You need to have setup a password for this to work. You
also need to substitute the ip address 71.126.148.6 for gerry.vanagon.com in
the address bar.
