So, I have a stuck injector. Really really really stuck.

At first I thought the PO just tightened it down to the standard 2500 ft-lbs, cuz that's pretty much how it felt. I broke my pry-bar trying to budge the darn thing. I soaked all my injectors threads with penetrating oil for days, and the seven others came out with ease. Eventually i got the bad boy to move a millimeter if I heat up the head around the injector a little.

After throwing out my arm moving the thing a 1/12th turn with all my strength, I finally got it to the point where I could see threads. It still turned very hard. But I noticed it wasn't coming out. It was just spinning. Here's a pic.




Any ideas? If no one has a suggestion, I'll just leave it in and extract the head later. Maybe the machinist will have a suggestion.

On a different note, here are some pics on the progress. I'm going to use the shop crane to pull the intake and heads tomorrow if all goes well.



Onward!

 

Oh and I forgot to mention, the ford engineers could NOT make that any closer to pull that passenger-side valve cover. One millimeter closer to the wall, and it would not be able to come off. Crazy.

 

i got the stuck injector out. just used a 7/8" open ended wrench as a pry bar under the hex of the injector, then spun it with the 1". eventually it came out. why the hell was that so stuck? carbon? is the head shot after a gum up jobber like that?

also, anyone have any creative ways to coat/cover/treat the exhaust manifolds so that they emit less heat? i got them off and i was thinking of wrapping them so that my van dog house isn't so hot. but wrapping would be tough with all the ... manifolds.

 

glad you got that bear of an injector out ..

they make exhaust wraps ... but they cost alot of $$$ ..

i have thought of this before .. no need in my truck .. but if i get a van ..

likewise with a hot doghouse .. maybe wrap a layer of fiberglass matt ..

then a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil .. then another fiberglass matt ..

and another sheet of aluminum foil .. repeat and repeat .. until you like it ..

the fiberglass won't melt and will make an airgap between each foil layer ..

then use a handfull of large hose clamps wrapped around the whole deal to keep it in place ..

handling fiberglass matt with bare hands can give you glass slivers .. but nowhere near as bad as insulation .. if you try it just wear gloves

 

Got the heads out. Considering this is a van job, it wasn't too bad. But if this was for a truck, relatively speaking, it was pretty awful.

Regardless, it was an interesting experience. I'd love to post the pictures of how I got them out (it is rather ingenious, IIDSSM), but I'm beat. I think the sun purposefully followed me around all day.

 

hahahaha .. yea it was sunny here but probaly nothin' like in Cali ..

glad it didn't give ya too much trouble .. u might need one

 

I met up with a friend today. The topic of my head gasket job came up. He suggested I order a set of "acorns" to protect the stud tips. I did a google search on this, and only found odd results. I'm not really sure what these technically look like, but I'm pretty sure from the name what to expect. Anyone have a link to these acorns for ARP studs on our IDI engine?

Also, I measured the ARP studs compared to my old head bolts. The ARP studs are 7/16" longer. That included the length of the head stud hex head. I didnt know the studs were so much longer. The engine MUST be tilted to install the head studs, probably on both sides. ugh.

 

I didn't read the whole thread so maybe this is what you are planning to do, but can you jack the engine up, remove motor mounts, then drop the engine down?

 

I plan to remove the motor mounts, but only one at a time. I need the engine to tilt. Just jacking up it up and setting it on the crossmember won't help my clearance, because the head studs will hit the side-walls of the van engine compartment. If I was just reusing the old head bolts this won't be a really big problem, but the new head studs are 7/16" longer. I'm beginning to entertain Leroy's original suggestions of cutting some holes in the fire wall. Maybe the hole-saw might get some action, just to give me a little more room.

Anyone got a line on the acorns?

 

okay i'll try to get this one in a 2'fer ..

cutting wheel is the ultimate problem solver for 'it just won't fit rite' ...

this cheap saturday nite special is easily the most frequently used tool in the shop ...

as for acorns .. here is one i use on my alt bracket ..

it's just there because it looks nice and i guess it does double to protect the threads ..

this one here is stainless and ahead of it is a regular high strength steel open nut .. most variety of acorns you'll come across seem to be stainless and you would not want to use one for clamping pressure ..

regular high strength steel is better .. so you could find ones that are in steel .. they do make them .. but they are likely not as good a quality as the nuts included in the kit ..

i can't imagine anything thread damaging could come into contact with the stud threads .. but if your concerned about it and insist on acorns .. i would use the regular nuts first .. then apply alot of locktite to acorn nuts .. stainless or hss and fasten them over top in piggyback style ..

of course not properly tightened down an escaped nut could possibly destroy your valvetrain ..

holding down the bolt in this pic is a regular high ss nut with a flashy classy stainless acorn on top for style points ..

 

Not that I'll claim to know anything about this, but I'm pretty certain he can't be talking about the acorn nuts that Leroy posted a picture of.

I'm wondering if there are some plastic acorn things that slide over the ends of the studs to protect the threads while you drop the head in place. Then you pull them off to put the nuts on. I'm not exactly sure why they would be needed for hardened studs, but I guess it can't hurt.

 

ahh .... that makes sense .. some kinda sleeve to go over the studs when installing them .. i also don't really have a clue on this perticular subject of acorns ..

just them acorn nuts is what i think of .. probably your right though .. something else ..

 

Not much of a point to that, the head needs to go on before the studs go in. I've done head studs on a few 6.0s, and there is no need to protect a protruding thread. There really isn't much thread sticking out.

 

On our vans (IDIJohn has done this HG job before as well), we have to insert a few of the studs and pushrods into the head, before installing the head. There isn't enough clearance to install the studs after the head has been seated on the head dowels. It's going to be awful, but hopefully with two or four extra hands, I'll be able to pull this off.

 

Given age, metal deterioration of the bolt, pump housing, and gasket, is there any possibility that the two bolts above and below the water pump could permit oil to leak into the cooling system?