I have ordered the AB gasket kit w/ bolts and awaiting delivery. I have or can get the tools needed and have the RAVE manual printed and have been studying it. Just a few questions before I get started:

1. Head bolts nearest the firewall. I know they are "stretch bolts" and have read a couple posts about them being easily broken/rounded off. Is this a common occurrence or were some of these people a little overzealous. I have done plenty under the hood and I never broke a bolt and was just wondering if I should have a recovery kit ready to go?

2. A/C and ACE, should I evacuate and completely remove? RAVE says to unbolt and secure to the side, is this the best plan of attack?

Thanks in advance for great answers from folks that have actually performed this work!!

 

I have done plenty of HG swaps on Discos.. Never broken or rounds a Head bolt, I could see how it could be done if people aren't paying attention while doing the final Yield on the bolts.

Just Pull the AC compressor off and tuck it where the air box was.. Same with the ACE.

Just be careful with the lines.. Don't want to get sprayed in the face with PAG oil and R-134....

 

The rear head bolts are easy to round off when removing them. If they start to round off just put a damaged bolt extractor on them, those things are awesome especially the HF ones believe it or not.

I broke a head bolt when doing the final torque. That was with a newly calibrated Matco torque wrench and following the procedure exactly. Not sure if it was a faulty stretch bolt or what. Luckily the bolt pretty much spun itself back out due to the torsional spring force on it. I hate stretch bolts though. If I were to do it again I would use studs. And like mentioned above you don't have to open the AC lines.

 

Thanks guys. I hope this goes smoothly and hopefully I won't get myself into too much trouble.

 

It is intimidated at first but just be detailed oriented and systematic and you will be fine. Also just keep asking ?'s when they arise or you get stuck. The hardest part of the job for me was getting the head bolts off as my heads were warped pretty bad. I had to use a 42" 3/4" drive ratchet.

 

Also replace the t/stat and your hoses, all of them.
Might throw in a bottle of Water Wetter or Purple Ice to improve the cooling systems operation.

 

I am in the middle of this as we speak.

The key to not rounding the heads off is to insure the socket is properly seated fully on the head of the bolt. Make sure it stays there when applying torque.

One of my rear head bolts started to round off. I had the rad out and just got in the engine compartment (sat on the rad support) to get a good angle on it. With some careful work I got it to break loose.

I did not have that luck on an easily accessible bolt in the front. The head rounded off. With some direction from the forum I bought a $25 Bolt Extraction kit and that worked perfectly.

As a note, the heads don't really round off completely. I used a 6 point impact socket and still had an issue. The head bolt just got deformed enough that the socket would ride up when I applied torque. No matter what I did, I couldn't hold the socket in place while applying torque. Anyway, the bolt extractor worked like a champ.

I kept my A/C system in tact, just moving it around carefully during the head removal.

Oh yeah, use a 5/8" 6 point impact socket. 5/8" is slightly smaller than a 16mm and I think that is the proper size and the bolts have SAE threads. But then I checked my new bolts and they are 16mm heads (5/8" socket does not fit - weird).

Good luck!

 

Great! Thanks guys. I will pick up a new t-stat while I am at it. I think I am past the intimidation phase, after studying the RAVE manual it looks as if the job will be more time consuming than anything else. If I can knock it out in two days, not counting time getting heads checked out and resurfaced, I will be more than thrilled.

 

When I did my head gasket(s) I ran to Sears and bought a few of the 3/8" drive sockets (12mm-16mm) that are not as deep but 'pivot' and I am telling you - the bolts FLEW out!

I am buying a set for my bro for XMAS and they make working on your engine so much easier.

Hope it helps!!

 

Haven't done LR heads yet, but from my experience as long as you have one hand turning the ratchet and another hand keeping the socket perpedicular to the head then you shouldn't have too much of a problem. Let us know how it works out for you