whats the easiest way to remove the head?

I am tearing the head off my 91 Talon Tsi to fix a dropped valve.

I have gotten alot done but it seems like there are just infinite hoses and wires and impossable bolts and nuts to remove. I have taken care of the exhust manifold just fine and the timing belt should be easy. I have started to tear down the side with the thrmostat housing but even that is stuck to the hear hard, I removed all 3 bolts but I cant get it off no matter what I try.

However my biggest problem is the damn intake, the ECI Multi part is fucking hugh and I cant get to the bolts holding it on.

So my question is, whats the easiest way to remove the head? Is there some kind of insider trick I should be aware of (god I hope so)

I really want to do it myself but it just seems like I cant get anywhere. What would a shop charge to do this or am I better off going it alone?

Thanks for hearing out my rant, please give me some input before I shoot myself in the head. -_-

when i take mine out i just leave the intake manifold, exhaust manifold and turbo, it's pretty heavy like that but saves me some time because the intake manifold bolts are tight and there's no room.
just dont forget to remove the bracket( triangle looking thing) should have 3 bolts, 2 on the intake and 1 on the block.

Remove the 4 turbo to manifold bolts, no need to mess around with the turbo when the mani will lift straight up off of it. Leave the intake manifold on. Ziptie the timing belt to the cam gears, pull the cam gear bolts, and bungee cord the belt and gears up to the hood. The rest is a couple coolantlines on the TB, a couple wires, etc, and just lift it straight off. Pull all the accessories off on a bench if you need to take them off for machine work.

Doing it this way I can change a HG in about 45 to an hour.

Thanks for the help guys, this should make this 10x easier. I have never torn the head off anything Mitsu other then the 1.8 and im sorta a n00b at this but my dad was a ace machanic so hes been giving me pointers.

I have a haynes manual and I was following its directions and it was all parts torn apart peice by piece and taken outta the compartment which is just stupid as hell.

I am confident I can get it off tommarow now (have about 8 hours on it so far -_-)

I will let you all know how it turns out but thanks for the help.

one litle note, i dont know if it's true or not but i was told that you cant reuse head bolts, so you might as well invest in some ARP's since OEM are like $60

You can reuse head bolts as long as they arent stretched or anything. But I would definatly replace them anyways. Also your going to want to get the head decked before you put it back on.

Whats a cheap set of decent quality headbolts going to run me? All I have around me in my small town is a advance auto parts and a autozone (and a napa parts store)

I dont plan on racing the engine, I just want it to have fun driving around once in a while and because I love the feel of the 1g's.

On a side note what does decked mean? I did a google search and really didnt find anything? Do you mean get the head resurfaced?

Anyways anything else I should be doing while im at it? I will be replacing all the gaskets I can and changing all the fluids. (what brand gaskets are not crazy expensive and will work, esp. for the head gasket?)

Thanks again for the help.

You should be able to get a set of factory head bolts from any car parts store. Any aftermarket ones will have to be ordered. You could just use any gasket for most of the parts, the headgasket is the only one you have to be careful with.

Decked is just making sure the head is perfectly flat and will seal good with the headgasket.

Go ahead and pull the intake manifold off when you get the head out and clean out all the carbon in it.

Kevin - Do you have to loosen the tensioner to pull the cam gears off and put them back on?

I paid like $15-20 for the headbolts for my car from ebay. They're stockers, but you can get them cheap

I paid like $15-20 for the headbolts for my car from ebay. They're stockers, but you can get them cheap
yeah arround that price, but if local stores dont stock them try this. shipping is FAST and is cheap. http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/raframecatalog.php FEL-PRO Part # ES71175

On a side note what does decked mean? I did a google search and really didnt find anything? Do you mean get the head resurfaced?

You got it. Definatly get the head resurfaced.

I will be replacing all the gaskets I can and changing all the fluids. (what brand gaskets are not crazy expensive and will work, esp. for the head gasket?)

I have had good experience with Fel-Pro brand gaskets and they are relitively inexpensive. You can get them from basically any auto parts store. I'm not sure on what brand to go with on the head gasket though. I helped a friend change the head gaskets on a z28 camaro....but I can't remember what brand we used.

You can't re-use stock head bolts. They are TTY (torque-to-yield) and when you torque them down, they're made to stretch. ARP's you can re-use, but the stockers you shouldn't.

Anyone have a rough idea of what the head resurface will run me?

Also im almost done removing the head, I just have to deal with the timing belt. I thought about trying to do it the way that was stated above but I dont wanna risk screwing it up so Im going to do it the "right" way. Jack up the motor a bit with a jack and a piece of wood to take the weight off the mount and remove the mount, then go from there.

Anyone see any problems with that idea? My local Advance Auto Parts sells a complete set of head bolts by fel-pro for 33$ so I am going to go with those. I will keep you updated on my progress and I really appricate all the help from you guys.

Those head bolts should work just fine. A head resurface will vary depending on location & store, but a wild guess is $100-150

Resurface should be relatively cheap. It costs us $30 for both the Camaro heads.....

you might have to remove the t-belt cover along with all the accesory belts, and jack it up, i cant really remember because i dont have a t-belt cover so all i have to do is unbolt the t-belt hydraulic tensioner and remove the t-belt from the cam gears

Kevin - Do you have to loosen the tensioner to pull the cam gears off and put them back on?

Yes. You have two options. 1, Simply screw in the tensioner tool (AMSperformance carries the one that I use, very nice piece) to remove tension. Or 2, put a small drill bit in the tensioner to keep it compressed and remove one bolt to swing the hydraulic tensioner out of the way. If the holes do not line up, you'll have to remove the tensioner and put it in a vice to slowly compress it, then pin it, then reinstall when the gears are back on. I Always keep the factory grenade pin from new tensioners for this purpose, they work the best.

Option 1 is the best, but the tool is ~40 bucks (don't be stingy!), and won't work on 6 bolt in 2g swaps. Option 2 can always be done, but requires removing the lower tbelt covers, which is more of a pain in the ass, but it works.