[alfa] Re: Stuck Head on 3.0 L V6 -- HELP!!!

[AlfaRs@xxxxxxx]

Dennis,

As I am in the process of disassembling a set of 3.0l heads right now I may be
able to help you.  It doesn't seem likley that this shaft is causing your 
problems
but I guess it could.  What I would do is thread in the bolt until it bottoms 
and
torque it down a bit.  This should allow you to rotate the shaft a little in 
each
direction.  If it twists a bit than it's not a problem find the center point. 
 Make 
sure that you also push it back off the stud.  You already have one of the 
heads
off so make sure that you have the liner hold downs in place.  Remove the cam
shaft so that all the valves are closed. Put some cotton rope down the (#3?) 
cylinder and rotate the piston up to compress the rope this usually works for
me.  You do have the distributor out don't you?

Good Luck,

Dave McCrory

Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 22:43:25 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dio Genio <diogenio@domain.elided>
Subject: [alfa] Stuck Head on 3.0 L V6 -- HELP!!!

My V-6 rebuild saga continues. Today the driver's side
head came up and off like a dream, just lifted it by
hand. The passenger side is another story...

The head is loose on the studs, I can lift it about 1
or 2 mm, and then it abruptly gets hung up on
something, which is NOT stud corrosion. (I can lift
the rear end of the head up more than the front, seems
it is only hung up in front). This is some form of
mechanical interference. I believe it is the rocker
arm shaft, which for some bizzare-o reason Alfa
decided to place so close to the head studs that they
had to mill flat spots in it for stud clearance (V-6s
are not for the timid, 4-cyls are soooooo much
simpler...!). 

I removed the cam, and inserted a bolt/nut/washer into
the rear threaded section of the rocker shaft. I
tried to pull the shaft out, but it will not budge! 
When it is put under tension, the head cinches down
tight and I can no longer wiggle it up the 1- 2 mm.
When I take the pulling tension off of the shaft, the
head becomes free again (at least for the 1 - 2 mm of
freedom). This is pretty much proof that the rocker
shaft is grabbing onto the threaded top section of the
studs, preventing me from lifting the head more than 1
- - 2 mm.

Does anybody know how can I rotate the shaft so that
the flat spot is parallel with the stud, allowing me
to pull the head? Rotating this shaft is no trivial
matter, there is nothing to grab onto.

I also considered removing the stud (or studs) that
are suspected of holding the head captive. I could
get thin nuts, double nut them and see if that will
get the stud out. Is is difficult to get an Alfa head
stud free? I have never tried it. I assume it is a
regular-sense thread--counterclockwise will remove the
stud, right?

Any advice for a frustrated, V-6 novice engine
rebuilder, besides to stick with 4-cyl cars...? 

Dennis 
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided