I may have to do a little diggin to find out some information about my motor, and it is gonna require it to be removed. I already have headers without AIR. I know I will have to remove the intake and such, but is it overall very difficult.

 

so again why exactly are you pulling the heads in the first place? you will have to make sure to drain block of antifrezze and such and lable things so they go back the way they came off. it alwyas hels to take pictures too!!

 

Not too difficult usually....

Once the intake and exhaust are off, it's 17 bolts per head. You'd usually loosen the rockers and remove the push rods first. Drain the block of coolant, which means pull the plugs just above the oil pan rails (the one on the pass side will be the knock sensor instead of just a plug).

For your exploratory surgery, I'd suggest starting out with finding out what head casting you have, first. You can do that with only removing a valve cover. Of course, there's no guarantee that the 2 heads are the same casting; if not, it wouldn't be the first motor that has ever been built with 2 different ones. You can tell a little about the cam with a dial indicator on the push rod tip, and rotate the engine through a complete cycle (2 crank rotations); check an intake and an exhaust. You can often look into a cylinder through the spark plug hole, and tell a good bit about the pistons.

 

I thought that removing mine was a PITA! Do take photos along the way!

 

I use a generic replacement 12v windshield washer pump and some washer hose to drain/pump the coolant from the heads/block before removing the heads. A lot easier than loosening the water plugs in the bottom of the block.

 

I like to put petcocks in instead of the plugs.

 

Ill tell you what. I have a 87 Iroc tpi, and Im in the process of removing the heads right now. Overall it just took about 3 hours yesterday, and thats because I struggled with the headers quite a bit. I have the driver side off, but the pass. side has a bolt on the rear of the head with about 3 or 4 wires and a tube grounded to it which is a PITA to take off. Im waiting for my dad to bring some thin profile wrenches which should make it easier.
Like the other guys said take pics along the way..., and just label things as you go.

 

That bolt with the wires on the back of the head was a major pain!

 

you may want to remove that a/c box crap before some how when i had to pull the heads on my new motor (long story) they came out fine but when i wne to put them back in i couldnt get to the back bolt on the passengerside head and i ended up breaking the a/c stuff cause the tourque wrench wouldnt fit!

 

how do you remove the bolt in the rear. I thought those thin profile wrenches would have done it, but I couldnt get to it tonight. The damn thing doesnt even buge.

For anyone wondering what Im talking about its on the passenger side head on the back of it. The bolt holds a ground for about 3 wires, and a stiff pipe that doesnt move at all. I couldnt get any kind of a tool back there...Any one else experience this??

 

that pipe goes to the cat and those thin wrenches would probably be a good idea its been so long since ive had clutter that i dont remember how it was lol

 

I tried and tried... it seems that used every wrench in my tool box. Eventually I got it, and you will too, just take a break when you are frustrated and try again later. Spill a little blood!

 

Sometimes it helps to bend a wrench to fit into tight spots.

 

ive got a few like that but they were not bent on purpose. lol cheap stuff

 

WOW...ok so Im not the only one. Yeah Ill try again today after work...And trust me "mnorton" Ive spilled quite a bit of blood in this entire process. Once again Thanks all for your input.

 

ALright I got it......In case anyone else is doing this and having trouble Im going to postthe solution. I searched for days, and couldnt find an answer..I guess you just gotta do it. The driver side has a bolt on the rear of the head with a bracket, and (2) ground wires. Remove that with a standard wrench...and then remove the bolt holding the bracket which is conencted to teh block..the head is now free... it shouldnt be too diffficult. The pass. side one is where you will have a problem. The passenger side has (2) brackets for pipes, and about (3) ground wires. I took all the head bolts off, and slide down the head a little to give me more room in the back. Remove the tranny dipstick to give yourself room. There is a bracket for it bolted to the tranny housing..remove it with a standard wrench, and pull out the dipstick. Remember...If the tranny isnt drained then fluid will spill. (my moms gonna beat my a** when im done)...Next you have to remove the bolt holding the (3) ground wires first...Can be done with a wrench but because of the limited space it will take a while. After that you find it is difficult to remove the wires o-ring terminals off the bolt, so just push them forward on the bolt as much you can with a flat head screwdriver. Then with a wrench proceed to the remove the main bolt going into the head. Once again it will take time because of the limited space. Just be patient, and take breaks..

Now..Do I need to reconnect these ground wires to the exact bolt on the rear of the head they came off from?...or can I bolt them to a ground on the chassis somewhere. I dont underrstand why gm engineers picked such a difficult area to mount things. Thanks guys....and I hope this healps at least one person out there.

 

Connect it back to the head. The ground strap ensures that there's a solid ground between the engine and the chassis.

 

another way to get some room behind the head is to take the cross member off the trans and jack the tranny up..that might give some room between the head and the firewall..I just came up with that idea but I havent done it yet.

My question is will a new set of aftermarket heads have a hole back there threaded for a bolt to attach the ground wires back to it?

 

Yes, aftermarket heads will have the accessory holes.

 

This was a big problem for me and my buddy on his iroc. We did a head cam swap, the heads are hte easy part, its the damn intake that takes forever, pics pics pics!! Every single damn connection you can think of, every angle, i went in with that mentality on this project (had previously done heads and cam on my chevelle) and it still wasn't enough pictures.

But back to the ground. After bolting it all back up, turning the key the ground strap fried, literally just burnt, very bad, it simply was not enough ground for that motor. Those wires on the back of the head can be grounded to the chasis, which is what I did, extended the 3 wires and bolted them to the firewall.

Than I got a battery cable and ran it from the head to the fender (since the frame didn't have any easily accesible mounting points. This solved the ground problem.

 

What 3 wires? It sounds like something you had wasn't right anyway. The ground strap is a braided copper strap that's already attached to the firewall.

 

the three wires that are stock grounded to the head, than the ground strap runs from there to the firewall. I changed it to ensure a better ground. The three wires now run right to the firewall, and the engine is grounded using a much bigger/better cable compared to that strap.

 

I cant think which three wires would be grounded to the head.

 

I bolted mine back to the head in the same place that they came off. It was MUCH more easy to put them back on, than to take them off.