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End of may I noticed that the carburettor rubbers were showing more then healthy cracks. As I had a oilleakge from the head I thought, well if I´m this far dismanteling, I´ll pull the head and throw in a new headgasket. In the 80´s I worked on a lot of alfa´s and I did a gasketswap in a saturday, so no deal. I thought.
No movement in the head what so ever, so I fabricated an Alfa headpuller, the works one using the sparkplughole, still no movement. Used a 40 tons jack on the inlet side - nope- Another puller, so on cyl 1 and 4 - no movement. Used a mixture of vinigar, penetration oil, nothing worked.
Then I hoisted the head onto a enginecrane and pulled up the whole car and worked the studs with an impacthammer. Yep - didn´t move.
This is an original italian sold car that was imported into the Netherlands in the 90ties. As well known, Italians don´t use cooling liquid , water, prefebly with lots of calcium, is used.
Finally after 4 weeks with the 2 headpullers, I had signs of movement, about 25mm. I needed quite some force on the removal tools to get some movement, some 80 Nm that is about what we need to tighten the head itself. But I ran into a problem, using the 2 factory tools, the head was moving unequally on the studs. I tried to whack it back a few times and raise it again, but it kept on going wrong, and there is no way to correct this.
I was now 6 weeks into trying to get the head off and then I found this post :
Heavy-duty head removal tool
By Ron C. It merely said heavy duty head removal tool. So initially I skipped the thread, while there was no explanation of how it worked and why you would want a puller like that. But like these things go, thinking about my problem when I was lying awake, I thought I need about 2 times 80 Nm to get the head of, and that is 80 Nm per sparkplughole. Now Ron C. needs the same 160 Nm, but he gets 10 studs to devide this, that is less then the torque of a sparkplug. He pulls on 12 studs of the camshaftbearingcaps, that is 160 divides by 12 is 13 Nm, also nothing. So load-wise this is a much better tool. On top of that you can steer which way the head pulls, by tightening those screws where you need it.
So next day I found out that my metal-guy was on holliday, so I started making a tool up from flatsteel and some finethread nuts and threaded bar. M12x1,25:
![Automotive lighting Hood Grille Motor vehicle Automotive tire]()
Made the screws from threaded bar and welded a nut on them. The head is about 110mm plus some thread above it, where the headnut sits, say total of 125 mm. With a threadsize of M12x 1,25 that means 100 turns per stud to get it of. Quarter turn a time, that are 4000 movements of your right arm. Yeah, 4000.
The first 25 mm (head was back on block) went quite easy, I did 2 quarter turns per stud, had my torquewrench set on 30 Nm and just a few studs needed this.After this it went a little harder, more studs needed 30 Nm, but still, that is nothing like the 80 Nm of the factory tool. I made some calipers from scrapsteel and at 30mm I measured where I was, and again the head was going unequally. But now I could easely adjust it and at 40mm I was deadstraight. Counting the turns is in general keeping you straight, but still you need to keep measuring and correcting. Noticing the torque needed was going down, I did four quarter turns per stud, checking every 10mm of lift (8 rounds of 10 times 4 quarter turns) Last time my right arm had so much training I was in my late teens....
Anyway after 9 cm of lift the torque lowered so much that even when the wrench was on 20 Nm it didn´t click. So after 2,5 hours of ratching and checking, the head was loose on the studs.
![Motor vehicle Hood Automotive exterior Bumper Automotive tire]()
9 weeks after starting I finally have my head off. And this is why:
![Automotive tire Motor vehicle Wood Rim Gas]()
Why am I telling you this? Well there are is a lot of advise here about stuck heads, but the best one (by far) is not mentioned as so much. Ron C. did come up with the best head removal tool for 3 reasons:
Ok it is a bit of work to make the tool ,you need to make sure you´re holes are in the right place and that the threads are deadstraight. Mine weren´t quite, and I damaged the inside of the studholes in the head, but that is not a problem. You can make either the steelplate like Ron C. or he constructed one by me. Once the tool is in action, and your right arm (or left for you lefty´s) is in good shape, it´s a doodle to get it off. I wish I had this advise before I started this job.
Hope this will help you.
Willem.
No movement in the head what so ever, so I fabricated an Alfa headpuller, the works one using the sparkplughole, still no movement. Used a 40 tons jack on the inlet side - nope- Another puller, so on cyl 1 and 4 - no movement. Used a mixture of vinigar, penetration oil, nothing worked.
Then I hoisted the head onto a enginecrane and pulled up the whole car and worked the studs with an impacthammer. Yep - didn´t move.
This is an original italian sold car that was imported into the Netherlands in the 90ties. As well known, Italians don´t use cooling liquid , water, prefebly with lots of calcium, is used.
Finally after 4 weeks with the 2 headpullers, I had signs of movement, about 25mm. I needed quite some force on the removal tools to get some movement, some 80 Nm that is about what we need to tighten the head itself. But I ran into a problem, using the 2 factory tools, the head was moving unequally on the studs. I tried to whack it back a few times and raise it again, but it kept on going wrong, and there is no way to correct this.
I was now 6 weeks into trying to get the head off and then I found this post :
Heavy-duty head removal tool
By Ron C. It merely said heavy duty head removal tool. So initially I skipped the thread, while there was no explanation of how it worked and why you would want a puller like that. But like these things go, thinking about my problem when I was lying awake, I thought I need about 2 times 80 Nm to get the head of, and that is 80 Nm per sparkplughole. Now Ron C. needs the same 160 Nm, but he gets 10 studs to devide this, that is less then the torque of a sparkplug. He pulls on 12 studs of the camshaftbearingcaps, that is 160 divides by 12 is 13 Nm, also nothing. So load-wise this is a much better tool. On top of that you can steer which way the head pulls, by tightening those screws where you need it.
So next day I found out that my metal-guy was on holliday, so I started making a tool up from flatsteel and some finethread nuts and threaded bar. M12x1,25:
Made the screws from threaded bar and welded a nut on them. The head is about 110mm plus some thread above it, where the headnut sits, say total of 125 mm. With a threadsize of M12x 1,25 that means 100 turns per stud to get it of. Quarter turn a time, that are 4000 movements of your right arm. Yeah, 4000.
The first 25 mm (head was back on block) went quite easy, I did 2 quarter turns per stud, had my torquewrench set on 30 Nm and just a few studs needed this.After this it went a little harder, more studs needed 30 Nm, but still, that is nothing like the 80 Nm of the factory tool. I made some calipers from scrapsteel and at 30mm I measured where I was, and again the head was going unequally. But now I could easely adjust it and at 40mm I was deadstraight. Counting the turns is in general keeping you straight, but still you need to keep measuring and correcting. Noticing the torque needed was going down, I did four quarter turns per stud, checking every 10mm of lift (8 rounds of 10 times 4 quarter turns) Last time my right arm had so much training I was in my late teens....
Anyway after 9 cm of lift the torque lowered so much that even when the wrench was on 20 Nm it didn´t click. So after 2,5 hours of ratching and checking, the head was loose on the studs.
9 weeks after starting I finally have my head off. And this is why:
Why am I telling you this? Well there are is a lot of advise here about stuck heads, but the best one (by far) is not mentioned as so much. Ron C. did come up with the best head removal tool for 3 reasons:
- Lowest torque needed per stud, so even very stuck heads are removed with moderate force, and less change of damaging camshaftcaps studs.
- No change of damaging your sparkplughole thread
- You can make sure you are pulling your head straight, by checking and correcting.
Ok it is a bit of work to make the tool ,you need to make sure you´re holes are in the right place and that the threads are deadstraight. Mine weren´t quite, and I damaged the inside of the studholes in the head, but that is not a problem. You can make either the steelplate like Ron C. or he constructed one by me. Once the tool is in action, and your right arm (or left for you lefty´s) is in good shape, it´s a doodle to get it off. I wish I had this advise before I started this job.
Hope this will help you.
Willem.
