I would tap the head back down and lift it straight out not at any crooked angle.... on the floor these wedges work good to break a head free and might help. Husqvarna Wedges Tree Felling Wedges... you can find them at any outdoor equipment store. that handles this brand.

 

Agree with my learned Uncle, knock the head back down again and lift it straight up.

Clean & apply grease to the studs. Put softwood pieces into the gap between the head and the block to catch the head, then using a stout length of timber, gently push the head studs backwards 2 at a time until they are all back into the head holes (the studs are quite flexible), then tap the head down onto the softwood pieces. Clean the studs where they come through the head, oil those you could not grease completely.

Now lift the head up straight, it should come off with a bit of a wiggle - I got into the engine bay of the Ti and lifted it up straight while standing on the upper chassis rails.

Ciao
Greig

 

I didn't understand your comment on the chain being "backwards". Ideally the final locking clip is to be positioned with the closed loop the other way but that shouldn't matter.

 

The locking clip has been installed backwards and I know of a non-Alfa (Toyota if my memory is right) engine that failed because of this mistake. The person who installed that chain was simply lucky ...
Pete

 

AlfistiSA - unfortunately the head will not go back down! I'll have a closer look tomorrow - maybe the 2nd pair of studs have actually come out of their holes and and are now stopping the head going back down. What a mess.

 

yes this is what could have happened or the head is sitting firmly on top of the third set of studs from the back - either way, use a mirror to check which is the first pair from the back to have come out the holes, grease them up and by applying some pressure bend them back wards just enough to let them slide back in.

Go and get hold of 2 mates - much easier to do this with several sets of hands. Also a big block of wood and a rubber mallet (even a rawhide mallet) generally gets the head going back down if the studs are bent slightly backwards again. Use a mirror to confirm progress.

Patience and logic, it's all physics, you just have to get the planets back in alignment so that the head can travel back down the studs again.

Most of us have had this particular wrestling match before, but I think you get the Gold Star Award for pulling one end up as high as you did.....:grin2:

Ciao
Greig

 

Head Removal

In the dim and distant past I can recall seeing plenty of Alfa timing covers with contact marks and even grooves on the inside from the chain flailing about. That shouldn't happen either but if it does and the clip ends face forward it is a disaster waiting to happen.
Anyway back to my problem: I've taken a photo from below and yes the studs are not aligned with the holes, by quite a long way. They are also off to one side. Bugger. I'll try pulling them into line with some welding clamps then the head should go down at the front into a level position. I'm just baffled how it has ended up like that because it was originally coming off quite easily.

 

...Alfa timing covers with contact marks and even grooves on the inside from the chain flailing about. That shouldn't happen either but if it does and the clip ends face forward it is a disaster waiting to happen.

OK, I'll buy that explanation.

... the studs are not aligned with the holes, by quite a long way. They are also off to one side.

I'm skeptical that your head studs are bent and would recommend that you not attempt to bend them back until you get the head off and can use a 90 degree reference to verify that they are misaligned.

As others have written, having the head jam is a common difficulty with head removal, especially when doing it solo. The head comes most of the way off, then gets ****ed and binds. Put some sections of 2x4 between the head and block, push it back down, and try again.

Having a second pair of hands helps. Using a hoist helps - not to apply brute force, but just to keep the head from dropping in front as you lift the back.

 

I don't think your studs are bent just that the head has ****ed. It looks like you only have the threaded part of some of the studs to go.

Not long ago I removed the head of my engine and it also was going very well until near the end and one side was free and the other not. I could also not get it to go back down so in the end just kept on pulling it off ... ugly yes but it came off and I do not think it has been damaged beyond future use.
Pete

 

Head Removal

Well I've got it off. Not a pretty sight. Plenty of corrosion and deep pitting around the stud holes but thinking about it that should not be too important because it does not make contact in that region. Might look better after skimming.
By the way Alfajay I didn't mean to imply that the two/four end studs were permanently bent just sprung backwards causing the rest to be misaligned. They seem in good condition now the head is off.
I think I might as well go the whole way and take the block out and strip it all down.

 

Should clean up nicely, ask your engineering shop to take off as little as possible, there are not enough decent heads around, so don't skim the one you have too much.

I've switched my cars over to Evans Classic Cool waterless coolant to stop the corrosion issues and also to provide me with a thermal barrier - I live in a tropical climate and occasionally the mercury rises sharply.

Ciao
Greig

 

Head Removal

I decided to attack the corroded areas with a die grinder with a view to having the head welded. The craters have ended up about 6 mm deep!
So that's quite a lot of weld. At this point I changed my mind about welding because I'm fairly certain the head would end up bent which would mean it would be scrap. What I realise is that these triangular craters would only be in contact with an unsupported gasket + coolant so with regards to sealing they are redundant. Therefore I will have a minimum skim of the head and leave the craters alone. Hope I'm right.

 

I decided to attack the corroded areas with a die grinder with a view to having the head welded. The craters have ended up about 6 mm deep!
So that's quite a lot of weld. At this point I changed my mind about welding because I'm fairly certain the head would end up bent which would mean it would be scrap. What I realise is that these triangular craters would only be in contact with an unsupported gasket + coolant so with regards to sealing they are redundant. Therefore I will have a minimum skim of the head and leave the craters alone. Hope I'm right.

danjamds,

I agree with Rick, some things are definately better left alone.....in addition to that, when Bart Holland (from what I saw, an excellent car restoration company in Holland) did a Giulietta Sprint some years ago, I, thanks to them posting hundreds of pics of every single detail they went through on that car (and they did all of it, left nothing untouched), was able to follow the whole and enormous process and when it came to the head, being as corroded as yours (and probably every one), they used some kind of special composite to fill out the corroded spots and pittings in the surface with (might even have been JB weld). I emailed them asking what it was, but unfortunately they never bothered to reply. Later on I´ve heard Citroen shops use the same stuff, but weather that´s true or not I never learned.
I later forgot all about it and never got to Citroen to get it confirmed.

Dennis

 

a die grinder on a cylinder head...Early Cylinder head castings can have porous castings with little effect to the sealing surface. Many of them left the factory that way. Some things are better left alone.....I find no words to improve the situation. The only thing I can do is sigh and tell you to put the die grinder away and never touch it again. I wish you had asked before you embarked on this mission. I wish I could be more positive, but die grinding a cylinder head is not a good plan.

 

Head Removal

I appreciate your concern divotandtralee but to re-assemble an engine with lots of crumbling decaying aluminium craters in the head would also be wrong. In my case it was so bad - the material just "fell away" - I was fearful that the adjacent "good" surfaces around the combustion chamber might be seriously undermined and weakened by the decay. So it had to be removed to see the extent of the rot. In the event I think it will be ok structurally. My original plan was to weld all the cleaned up craters but they are just too deep. By the way I don't put that entirely down to coolant corrosion it's a rubbish casting really. A die grinder with a round end burr cutter is the recommended tool for preparatory head work. I've had other ally heads welded before and it is absolutely vital to remove all the corrosion - the whole area must be immaculate before welding. This one was just too severe and the weld fill and heat input would have led to distortion.

 

I talked to a shop in Oregon which repaired aluminum cylinder heads that had been severely damaged. I have several 1300 and 1600 cylinder heads that have corrosion damage that can be repaired by this shop. I believe that you can use heads with corrosion damage so long as head works. I might send some of these heads to Oregon for repair if I want to rebuild some engines, but after restoring many Giulietta cars I would rather drive a new car like a Giulia QV.

 

Hi Dennis,
Just out of interest here are some pics of my Citroen head.
I can not imagine those glue/filler products such as JB Weld and Devcon staying put in such a hostile environment - hot/cold +vibrations.
For me like Loctite they are the "last resort of the desperate engineer".

 

Hi danjamds,

I didn´t say it was JB weld Bart Holland used on the Giulietta head, I said "it possibly could have been" from the looks to judge as this stuff maybe looks the same from distans.
I also after seeing the work they put into the Giulietta seriously doubt the guys at this company are anything but "desperate engineers" as they for sure have heard of welding aluminum heads before, but still they chose this approach instead.

Dennis

 

Hi Danjamds, In your last post(#25),in the second picture,combustion chamber on right,do I see a hairline crack from valve seat to spark plug hole? If yes,was that repaired and do you have a photo of it? I have a head with this problem(actually two) so are they worth repairing,or should I look for another head?

 

Hi Alphill,
No I'm not aware of a crack. I think repairing cracks is probably more frequent than porous cavities. Obviously they must be welded and that means opening up a sizeable cavity in order to fill it with weld. You can't just run a a bead of weld along the surface. The problem with all ally castings is the level of impurities and other constituents such as silicon. But if they are scrap now you might as well have a go. If there is just one plug hole to do the heat input will not be massive and there shouldn't be any distortion. By the way it is worth noting that the distortion problem of the head is really with respect to the camshaft journals - not the sealing face because this can milled flat. To correct the camshaft journals the head + caps have to me line bored and shell bearings made - a very expensive job.