Advice for pulling my head?

[monoxidechild]

Just unbolt the intake manifold from the head, and pull the head out, while leaving the intake manifold laying in the engine bay. There is a ton of vacuum lines and other hose on the intake manifold, and if your not familiar with them, its easy to get them confused. So its easier just to leave them all still hooked up, and just unbolt the manifold from the head.

[04ProbeGT]

Originally Posted by monoxidechild

Just unbolt the intake manifold from the head, and pull the head out, while leaving the intake manifold laying in the engine bay. There is a ton of vacuum lines and other hose on the intake manifold, and if your not familiar with them, its easy to get them confused. So its easier just to leave them all still hooked up, and just unbolt the manifold from the head.

If you pull it off correct you should only have 5 vac lines that will be removed the one from the bpv, the one from the air box and the 3 from the black canister on the passanger side. I have alwaysed removed my im when pulling off the head.

You will need to unbolt the bracket with the 2 solenoids and the egr control solenoid valve off the fire wall.

Dont forget ytou will have to do the lower heater hose, return fuel line as well as the fuel feedline and break booster line.

My hands are to big and it makes it hard to get to the IM bolts. If the head has never been off you will need to undo one of the lower IM bolts as the oil feed line is bolted to it.

[mx_masta]

Leave the intake in the car, all you need to do is;
-Undo the intake and exhaust manifold fasteners and the intake and exhaust manifold brace fasteners.
-Undo the EGR pipe nut on the exhaust manifold and lever the pipe out of the manifold.
-Then you should be able to lever the manifolds away from the head enough to get the head off.

You need a good socket set with a stubby ratchet and combination or open-end spanners.
A long socket extension (12" +) will help for the braces.
A pry bar or 2 will help with levering the manifolds away and breaking the head gasket seal.

When you get back onto to reassembly use copper gasket sealant spray on both sides of the gasket and the mating surfaces of the block and head.
This will all but eliminate any chance of coolant leaks, even with a cheap head gasket.
It's a good idea on the manifold gaskets too.

[el seven]

Good replies, although the jury seems to be split on leaving the IM or pulling it with the head.

I went towards leaving the IM bolted to the head initially, and didn't want to pull the EGR line as it conflicted with the hard oil return from the turbo manifold. I couldn't lift the head off (with the IM) without needing to interrupt that oil return so, i went back to leaving the IM in the car.

Yeah, the one lower drivers' side IM bolt with the oil line clamp was already removed but still, the EGR pipe resides below it so the IM staying with the head would not work... even though i screwed the EGR pipe out of the exhaust already.

I'm about to upload some pics about some concerns involving WTF is going on with my head gasket "issues" as per my findings...

After overheating the motor last month, it had a stumbling idle and only started easily when cold. But once running (rather hot running admittedly) the car ran as normal. Good acceleration, normal boost, etc.

Ran a comp check before pulling the head and readings were within 10 of each other.

No oil in the coolant anywhere, no coolant in the oil anywhere.

[monoxidechild]

Ive done it both way, leaving the manifold in, and taking it fully off. If you just doing a basic head removal, its much easier just leaving it in place. It gets the job done a bit faster.