Ok, I made a trip to the scrapyard and found an old formula with 081 casting numbers on the heads. They appear to be in good condition with only minor surface oxidation in the water openings.

I got the valve covers off, no problem.
Removed the head bolts (following ye old sacred spiral pattern)

But the heads won't budge from the block.

The exhaust manifolds are still attached, but the Y pipe is gone.
I don't see what is holding them down. I don't want to pry at
them and risk damageing the mating surfaces.

Any advice?
I have plenty of tools at my disposal.
including the driveshaft I connected to my socket wrench to make
a Missouri prybar (lol)


PS: if these are not the right heads for this application please let
me know. I'm a 3rd gen newb.

 

i assume the intake manifold is off as well? I would get rid of the exaustbecause its adding so much more weight.

make sure you got ALL of the bolts inside of teh head near the rockers... or where they used to be... you took the roockers off right?

other than that just get a rubber mallet hammer and give it a good whack to loosen them up

 

Assuming the intake manifold is removed and 17 head bolts, a large screwdriver or pry bar inserted in the egr or intake port should break it loose.

 

LOL yes, manifold was removed
I've taken engines apart before, I'm just not used to SBCs

I got all the head bolts and the rockers
(although I don't see how they hold the head in place)
I'll go back tomorrow with a mallet and pry against something
useless like the egr

It just seems stuck to the block.
When I pulled up on it the block moved with it.
(Note: junkyard insurance guys don't like it when you climb up on cars)

 

I hate to ask, but did you take off the short bolts that are down on the side of the heads. Some people have overlooked them.

 

Someone on the General board mentioned that - I will check that when I go back tomorrow.

I got all of the bolts on the top, some long and some short.
All under the valve cover.
I also got the rocker (studs?)

I will remove the exhaust manifold and make sure I did not
miss any.

 

thats exactly what i was going to say. the're under the manifolds and hard to get at?

 

When I took my TBI heads off, even with all the bolts out it was hard as hell. They get stuck to the block pretty good.

 

I didn't think they had 081's in 1983. Maybe I'm all confused, but I thought those would be the 416's...

 

I was wondering about that actually, but it is quite possible that that engine was swapped out at some point.

I was just rummaging through the junkyard looking for TBI units, TPI heads and aluminum driveshafts *heehee*

 

They didn't have Formulas in 83--seems like you're just getting a set of reg carb v-8 heads--which I don't think are that great--unless you're going to experiment w/them(porting, polishing, bigger valves etc).

 

Yeah, there will be a line of bolts on the side of the heads directly underneath the exhaust manifolds. You can only get to them with manifolds removed.