A day at the junkyard..

Hey all. I spent a day at pick ur part and had some fun. I found a pretty fresh 95 cav and i went to town, i stripped off the intake, valve cover, and took off rocker arms and push rods. Its neat it looks really cool under an OHV engine. Anyways i cudnt get a couple things off, i dont know to take the alternator off, what is the easiest way to take the belt off urself? I cudnt get at one single nut at the header, it was the far left lower one cuz the alt was in the way. Surprisingly everything was very staright forward in taking it apart, i didnt even have chilton with me :P I also could not get the upper engine mounts off for the life of me, they were torqued on soo tight so i think i need a breaker bar. I also noticed that little metal bracket covering the fuel injectors uses Torx bolts :screwy:

Anyways i got all the way down to the head bolts, those are also torqued in very well and would need a breaker bar or a bigger wrench to remove them, is there any easier way? I was thinking put a wrench on and bang it with a hammer but i just got new tools and i dont wanna break the wrench. Once i get the head bolts off i think im about ready to wrip it off and access the head :iceslolan I want to do it myself so i can save 800 bucks lol. Anyways would i need to take any other pulleys off other than the alt to wrip the upper half off? How long does it take to thouroughly clean the head off and what is the best thing to use, i wanna make sure i do a good job so i dont have to come back and do ANOTHER gasket job.

I was also thinking of while im in there i might as well clean everything out, gain a few hp and make it run smoother. Im sure 3 mm's of dirt and crust under the throttle body and in the intake holes isnt helping anything lol.

Moral of my story is, if u wanna access ur head or wrip ur engine apart its not all that hard! I was proud when i had the air hose, throttle body, pushrods and lifters, etc laying on the ground beside me :) Basically im just wondering any heads up or tips for when i go to do the gasket to my car. Thanks for the read, i had fun and im going back today :naughty: Also if anyone can answer the few questions thruout this 'book' i wud greatly appreciate it :)

you must release the serp belt from the alt to get it off..there should be either 2 or 3 bolts holding it on...once its off youll be able to access the header bolt. as far as the head gasket goes i would suggest using indian head gasket sealer...starting fluid to clean the head....togain a few hp you might even have the head ported and polished..

Remove belt at tensioner pulley, The Alt probably has 3 bolts one on the backside you have to feel for and two up front that are obvious, the power steering pump might need to come off to remove head, again three bolts I beleive. Scrape the head bottom real good and use a specific cleaner (I just scraped it and wiped it down real good, worked great) if you want to. If you are after more HP, you gotta get it polished and probably replace the Valves. Good Luck and yes you will need a breaker bar. Autozone or Advanced Auto sells one for less than $20.

Yeah ive heard about using the sealer, is that used on top of the gasket to make sure it seals good? And thanks ill go get a breaker bar. I thought u had to loosen that middle nut in the alt to get it off, cuz i got the alt bolts off but it was stuck on there good lol. Ok so im pretty close then.. what exactly do u use for a scraper? like an actual metal scraper? Is it heavy to pull the top half off?

Also where can i get new cheap valves? might be the cause of my ticking anyways..

Hmmm all i read was bout the high-tourqed bolts. Ever heard of a cheater-bar? Its saved my life many times.

Valves - www.carcustoms.net

Alternator has 3 bolts. The alternator bracket has 2 nuts ontop, 2 bolts below and you have to remove the 3 bolts holding the alternator to it.

Thanks guys, so does that mean all i need to take off is the alt or do i need the PS pump off to pull the engine off also? Thanks muchly, im going to get a breaker bar and torque wrench tommoorow and i think i have all necissary tools to complete the job :)

PS: U think its worth it to throw new valves in? Im tryin to put as little money into this as possible until i get my new eco cav :) I wud obviously have to take the valve springs off and i havent gotten to that yet, is that a hard task also? Ill think about it if its an easy job.

Im also wondering what the ticking is, if its the rocker arms, valves, or the lifters, i wudnt mind swapping them but i dunno if the junkyard is a good place to swap em, they cud be worse than mine so i dunno.

grab me a cluster with tach from a 99, i'll send you a check, lol.

Ha, i can see what i can do. I want my own cluster with a tach too..

i got mine on ebay, seemed to be a dime a dozen, but i got one wiht the flames for really cheap becasue the person was selling it stating that the cluster had like 200k miles, so I knew that my miles would transfer ( and many don't know that) so it was all good

how much do they usually go for???

not really sure, mine was like 35 shipped for the cluster and the flames already on there, and that was with the tach on it

Stuff is so cheap there, an engine is like 150 bucks lol. A cluster wud be maybe 10-15 bucks canadian.

Anyways i picked up a long bar from wal mart, its a Stanley 14" bar with 90* head. Im gonna go see if i can crack my engine mounts right now just for fun to see if it will work for the head bolts.. It is a lot longer and it isnt a ratchet so i wont have to worry about REAMING on it..

breaker bar, i broke a stanley clean in half and broke two toes in the process, since then i never use anything but craftsman, snap-on or that other brand i can't think of right off the top of my head but it is also rediculous price

Wow really? Mine seems really good quality its heavy, and its actually longer than 14" its 16-18" now that i look at it. I just broke my engine mount bolts loose with ease with it.. I think it should work..

I agree with steve on using only craftsman and snap-on but you shouldnt have a problem with your stanley. only steve would break one in half and on top of it break 2 toes in the process.:grinno: lol

only i could fuck something so simple up that bad lol

Yeah i should be fine..

Hey guys, i didnt wanna make another thread for a couple more questions. Me and my buddy are gonna go thru with the gasket change next weekend! Go me :P What plug shud i use to drain my coolant, or shud i disconnect the lower rad hose and let er piss out? 2nd question is, is there any tips or tricks for taking off the serp. belt? It needs to come off along with the alt and the PS pulley as someone said. I havent done belts before and im not filled in with how u take em off and how the tensioner works etc. Thanks muchly!

Other than this im ready to rock and roll, wish me luck! :)

you should really just go and by a haynes manual.

EDIT:
1) Using a wrench, rotate the tensioner pulley counter clockwise to release tension in the belt
2) Remove the belt from auxilary components and slowly release the tensioner
and use a Z or S shaped wrench it will make it a little bit easier.
Don't try to slip the belt over the tensioner last. Slip the belt over the tensioner after routing it over the other pulleys, pull the tensioner all the way back, then slip the belt over the stationary pulley located at the top, back of the engine. Trying to slip the belt over the tensioner while pulling it back with the wrench on the tensioner is a pain.

and about draining the fluid, I would just undo the bottom hose and let it piss out.

yea a ratacket works better for the tensinor and just take the hose off and it should be fine, getting a bubble in the system may be a pain

Ooookay. Took all sat and sun to get er done. Overall it went pretty smooth. I got a whole gasket kit so i took the time and replaced and cleaned the intake and exhaust and swapped the gaskets etc. It felt nice to clean everything because there was like 3mm of cake on the intake ports. Anyways im sitting at a standstill because for some fucked up reason i cant find the 3 power steering pump bolts...... i looked everywhere and i cant find them so off to the junkyard tomorow.

It was fun, i learnt alot, followed the manual and torque specs, etc.. I havent got to fire her up because i have to install the PS pump, alt, and the belt then im pretty much done.

Turns out when my mom got the gasket done Awhile ago she brot it to can tire.. huge mistake. One of the head bolts was CRACKED IN TWO! frikin idiots.. i spent a good half an hour cleaning the head so i cud frikin eat off it, it should be good.. Gotta go for now but cud someone throw up a pic of their header/flange, i wanna know if there shud be a gap between them cuz of the cupseal thing.. Thanks

gap? what kinda gap do you have