Whoops!

[watsongs]

OK, so I put the head back on & did the torquing of the head bolts and just now realized that I can't get the idler pulley back on the head while it's attached.  Can I take the head off & slip the pulley back on, reusing the same head gasket?  I hasn't run yet, it's been sitting for about three weeks with the head bolts at the second round of tensioning.  Any thoughts?  I'm tempted to do it; if the gasket leaks, I can then do another one later...

[Dr. Diesel]

1.9L serpentine belt tensioner? or timing belt tensioner? What pulley?
If it's the T-belt tensioner, maybe you could thread it out of the head, then thread it back in with the pulley on. or loosen the engine mounts and raise the engine.

[watsongs]

It's a 1.5 timing belt tensioner bolt.  The wheel well is only about an inch from the end of the belt - there's no way to unthread and put it back in.

Greg

[QuickTD]

Use 2 nuts tightened together on the idler stud to unscrew it, put the idler in place, then screw the stud back in.

 If you just need a fraction of an inch, use a scissors jack between the frame rail and the block to push the engine to the left a little bit. You can get 1/2 an inch easily enough.

 If you lift the head you'll need a new gasket, they cannot be reused.

[fspGTD]

Like Dr. Diesel says, if you've torqued the headgasket, don't disturb it unless you need to.  Otherwise you should replace it with a new one.

You can get extra clearance to slip the timingtiming belt tensioner onto its stud by putting a floor jack under the passenger side of the oil pan and jacking the motor up.  The passenger motor mount has a little bit of flexibility, but to avoid risking tearing it, jack the motor up enough just to take the load off it (it will probably go up by about 1/4"-1/2") then remove the motor mount to chassis bolt, and then you can keep jacking to lift the engine as high as is needed.

[watsongs]

I couldn't find another nut to double-nut the stud (stores all closed for the holiday), so I'll try doing just the stud first, if that doesn't work I'll try jacking up the engine.  Thanks for the ideas -

Greg