With the help of Chiltons, I'm assisting a friend-in-need and digging into a 95 Neon to replace the head gasket. All is going as well as can be expected, until we tried to remove the crank pulley. Completely seized. I've broken two pulley pullers trying to get it off.

I then dusted off my oxy/acetylene torch and heated the pulley, but that didn't work either. In fact, I think I torched it so much that the crank bearing is now suspect.

I'm about to pull the engine and look for a replacement unless someone offers me a golden nugget of advice. The body/interior/tranny are immaculate, and the owner loved the car. I just can't part it out or scrap it.

thanks.

dave - indiana

Crank pulley is a supreme bitch.

I broke a 5 ton puller too... the 6 ton did the job. Barely.

The damnest thing is getting leverage positioned to push off of.
Get the car AS HIGH AS POSSIBLE in the air, and make it STABLE.
You're going to need lots of space for a long bar, but you don't want
shit coming down on your head either.

The way I did it was to have a wrench on the crank bolt supported
by a jack stand (right side horiz) so it wouldn't let the crank turn when I torqed the puller, then put a socket on the puller bolt (1/2 inch type)
with 1/2 inch breaker bar at least 20 inches long, then put a 3 foot
pipe OVER the breaker bar for additional leverage.

Make sure nothing slips. It WILL come off. It IS a bitch.
Heating it doesn't help to get it off at all. You MAY have
weakened your crank bearing, but I think it's maybe ok.
As long as you didnt get the crank glowing hot...

The rest of the headgasket is cake. BUY A TTI PULLEY to replace
the stock pulley, because it has a hub that BOLTS on and doesn't
need to come off to get the timing cover off. Worth every penny.

Or, fuck all this and get a 2.4 motor and get crazy. :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: