Cylinder head nuts studs

[vikla]

I have linked here to a picture of my cylinder head

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/65946927/2011_1 ... pe0021.JPG

Hopefully you will see that the engine lifting straps are in the wrong positions on the head bolts/studs. I want to move them into the correct positions.

My question is can I do this OK if I undo 4 of the nuts and just swop them over as fast as possible, or may it create a problem with the head gasket which might result in a leak. I would have to do this twice over to move both straps. In total it means undoing and then putting back 8 of the 16 nuts/studs.

I have already undone one nut and found that the whole stud comes out. This also brought up dirty water so I assume the studs go into part of the block by a water passageway.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[john wyatt]

I would not do this think you may be inviting head gasket trouble, no experience though!

[christopher storey]

Steve : it depends very much on whether you have a short stud ( 3 core plugs) or long stud ( 5 core plugs) block. In 1966 I would expect it to be short stud, but if the engine has been changed at any stage it may not be. The short answer is, if it is a long stud block, don't even think about it - the studs can either break or unscrew and can be a real ba**ard to get back in - and if it is a short stud block , you could try it, but I think it is inadvisable unless there is some imminently good reason for doing so

[vikla]

Christopher

I want to do it for aesthetic reasons. I have cleaned up the head in situ and want to re-paint the gold parts and thought moving the straps to their proper positions would be good.

The stud I pulled out was about 6in long, so looking at parts lists I think this is the short type.
The engine is original from May 1966.

You are indicating the issue is if I cannot get the studs back in, not my concern about the head gasket.

If most of the other studs have the domed nuts unscrew on their own is it likely to be OK. Clearly I can slacken them off individually and see if the stud moves or not.

Also is the water at the bottom of the stud normal?

[jongant]

If you are sure yours is short stud, some of this doesn't apply. But my story is similar to this approx 30 years ago. Took the head off my long stud engine. 1970 XJ6. A number of studs came out and were indeed covered in watery sludge. The studs really refused to go back in properly. As you can imagine they were trying to compress the sludge.

What could apply, is how to deal with the freed studs. I drained everything down......... and dried things out, (maybe by leaving it some time). (If yours is short stud it reasonable to assume that you have released the head gasket enough to allow water into the thread holes).

I then got a plug tap of the correct size, is it 7/16UNF???, and brazed it ito a length of bar. This I ran up and down the holes until the holes were clear enough to reinsert the stud.

Alternatively, it yours is just water.....not sludge............and it is short stud, then perhaps you still need to drain things down so no more runs into the thread holes. Get an airline and an extension and blow the water out of the hole. Add some loctite once dry and put the correct studs in the correct holes.

A right load of chaos.....

PS If it ain't broke....blah blah blah

[Heuer]

Steve

If you are doing this just to make it 'look right' I suggest you follow the advice of others in leaving it alone, annoying as that may seem. If you were able to remove just the nuts you could probably work out a strategy to move the lift posts so there were always two torqued nuts either side of those you were removing. If you are intent on doing this then factor in a new head gasket at the very least, but some of those studs may not come out quite as smoothly so problems will multiply exponentially. You could get the head off, decoke it, have it skimmed (if necessary) and put it all back but I would prefer to spend the time driving it!