cannot get cylinder head off

[Justin]

I am helping a friend to work on his 81 2 door hatch back rabbit and i traded him a 1.5 NA diesel with a blown head gasket for the car, well he tried to pull the cylinder head off while i was on vacation and he had a lot of trouble getting the headbolts removed so he got a 550 ft lbs impact wrench and still couldnt remove one bolt so he cut the head off of the bolt and the bolt has rusted itself to the aluminum head, he picked up the car by the one bolt by pulling on the cylinder head and it still didnt come out

the only ideas i can come up with are hammering a wedge between the head and block (can you say by by to the head and block surface)

or drilling the bolt out (long and PITA) but i think that it is his only option

any ideas?

thanks in advance
Justin

[chrissev]

I am helping a friend to work on his 81 2 door hatch back rabbit and i traded him a 1.5 NA diesel with a blown head gasket for the car, well he tried to pull the cylinder head off while i was on vacation and he had a lot of trouble getting the headbolts removed so he got a 550 ft lbs impact wrench and still couldnt remove one bolt so he cut the head off of the bolt and the bolt has rusted itself to the aluminum head, he picked up the car by the one bolt by pulling on the cylinder head and it still didnt come out

the only ideas i can come up with are hammering a wedge between the head and block (can you say by by to the head and block surface)

or drilling the bolt out (long and PITA) but i think that it is his only option

any ideas?

Turn the cylinder head.  Twisting pressure is a lot stronger than vertical when you are dealing with rusted parts (ie pulling up won't give you as much breaking strength as twisting).  Your friend might regret cutting the head off the bolt though.  It will be hard to get out of the block with no head on it.

[Justin]

once the tension is off of the bolt it should be hard to back the threads out of the block, like i said the problem is that the bolt is rusted inside the head, so you could sit there and turn the head in circles to back out the bolt. the problem with spinning the head is that he would have to remove the engine from the car to do so.

later
justin

[chrissev]

once the tension is off of the bolt it should be hard to back the threads out of the block, like i said the problem is that the bolt is rusted inside the head, so you could sit there and turn the head in circles to back out the bolt. the problem with spinning the head is that he would have to remove the engine from the car to do so.

later
justin

I would remove the engine.  It's not that hard to do (if you bring the tranny out with it) and it will be less work in the long run then drilling through the bolt (which will probably destroy the cylinder head because he'll never be able to keep the drill straight as he goes down).  Once he gets the head/head bolt free of the block, he can put the head in a vise and drive the bolt out with a large hammer.  It is not threaded into the head, just into the block.

If he drives a wedge between the head and the block, he will destroy the head for sure.  It is aluminum.  Very soft metal.  You can scratch it with a ball point pen.