Hello gentlemen,
So I'm trying to pull the head off of my '68 OTS...4.2 w/ Strombergs. I've followed the green bible exactly:
all 14 cyl head nuts off
the 6 smaller nuts at front off
banjo bolts, exh manif, throttle linkage, thermo housing, cam sprockets, etc all disconnected. The head is on like it's welded...doesn't even budge. I've used an overhead hoist carefully strapped to just the head, and all it does is begin to raise the whole engine/trans assembly. I'm concerned now about tearing/destroying engine mounts. I've never come across this before, but I've mostly done engine work on my old 60's Landrovers which are much simpler and less finicky. Any tips/hints/ideas?
Many thanks, Eric. BwanaEataol.com
1968 E-Type OTS

Submitted by cebotech1@yahoo.com on Sun, 05/21/2006 - 20:14

Eric,
I have encountered a similar problem. Not with the head but with a caliper on another brand of car. The solution was to use hydraulic force to separate the parts. In my case I filled the chamber with grease and used air to separate the two parts. In your particular case you may use only air presure. Using a cylinder presure gauge adaptor, introduce high presure air to one of the cylinders. Make sure that you leave the spark plugs on and the head nuts on but loose.
good luck.

Bill Berman.
1968 FHC.

Submitted by ianc@uvic.ca on Sun, 05/21/2006 - 13:16

The previous post offers the standard solution. Drain coolant. Loosen off the nuts, lots of penetrating oil on the studs, tighten the nuts down to within 1/8" of the head, crank the engine over a couple of times, with the lead out of the coil. THEN do the disassembly.
1969 E Type

Submitted by blackwbg@msn.com on Fri, 05/19/2006 - 13:20

one way I got one off once was to hit the starter WITH THE CAMSHAFT TIMING CHAINS STILL ATTACHED, after removing just the nuts. If they have been detached, the timing tool and retiming the chains is necessary, rather than just reconnecting them anywhere.

This is like 700 or 800 hundred pound hammer hits up on the cylinder head per cylinder with 100 PSI and 7 or 8 square inches area per cylinder with every compression cycle. If you have enough compression left.

Be ready to stop fast, but when it moves, the pressure relieves so fast it will not launch itself unless you have a lot of compression. The timing chains will keep it from going very far.

I would also suggest a lot of penetrating oil, preferably a Kano Lab product, go down the studs and soak for several hours before doing this. Two of the studs are like dowel studs, and they fit into the head tightly, and the aluminum to steel joint at the plane of the head gasket makes for some good galvanic corrosion sticking. If you have a book showing which ones they are, only those need it, but doing all of them will help you get the studs out easily when that time comes.
Brian blackwell

Submitted by dougi@shaw.ca on Wed, 05/17/2006 - 01:30

Eric,

If you remove all the studs first, it's highly likely that the head will come off easily. People have hung the car by the head for weeks without it budging. Studs out, head off.

Doug Ingram
Victoria BC Canada
1969 E-Type OTS
1987 XJ6 VDP
2002 X-Type