1987 Ferrari Testarossa Head removal -Stuck bad!

Have you tried cussing at it?

 

Put some oil in the cylinders and crank the engine? Valves damaged already right? Crank by hand first use starter motor if no good?

Good luck anyway!

 

Here's what I did with a 308 motor with a very stuck head. Same as you I had tried just about everything.

I took a set of old spark plugs and cut the ceramic out of them. I purchased 3/8" ACME coupling nuts and welded them into the spark plug body.
Then I bought the matching 3/8" ACME threaded rod and welded some nuts onto one end and sharpened the other end to a point.

I had to put one down each cylinder to spread out the tension across the head. I did use some heat, but nothing more than a propane torch.

This will ruin the pistons below (see the pics), but it should get the head off.
I was just thinking, that this would only work on motors with a 14mm spark plug hole.
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You need to fabricate some type head pulling plate. This is commonly used on the older engines and the idea should work as well for any stubborn head. Look on tomyang.net as this a topic frequently mentioned. Good luck,Mike

 

If you pull the cams the valves should all be closed, or as closed as the bent ones can be. My thought is to pull the cams then when all is clear to crank the engine over and as mentioned before see if the compression can pop it loose. Thoughts?

I also like the idea of filling a couple cylinders that are at bottom of stroke, maybe one at each end with valves close and turning the engine over with a breaker bar on crank pulley. I do not know how much pressure it takes to bend a rod and don't know how stuck the head is, but those are my thoughts.

I just saw the cams are out, valves should be out of the way.

 

Yes, that's what I'm thinking. My guess is that when it comes to a stuck head with all bolts removed - versus - hydrolock, valves, pistons etc that the weakest link will be the head and that it will yield.

 

Drill a series of very tiny vertical holes into the head gasket.

Fill tiny holes with water.

Freeze.

Or get the studs burned out.

 

What if you hooked back up the header for that side and blew hot air back into the head to get things hot and expanding some what evenly (or maybe 4 friends with hair dryers) then get some cans of "dust off" compressed air and turn them upside down and with a long nozzle (and the same 4 friends) blast the studs to freeze and shrink them then wack it. (Dust off upside down will freeze what ever it hits so be careful) I know its a little "outside the box" but who knows?

 

Okay here is a totally hair brain idea.

Since it probably has rust inside ........ how about buying a bottle of CLR bathroom cleaner, as the CLR stands for Calcium Lime Rust remover. Poor some of that into each cylinder and also fill the coolant passages with it, and let it soak over night. Maybe it dissolves enough of the rust to weaken it's hold so you can try using the "spreaders" speedmade used, or something similar???

 

Do a search for stuck 308 heads. Sean, (Luckydynes) is a hell of a machinist and built a head pulling plate that worked.

Have him make one for your application and rent it out to cover the cost of fabrication.

It sounds like you are at the point where any more heat or brute force is going to break something expensive.

Good luck,
chris

 

Here ya go:

doesn't look cheap, but have you priced a set of rods/pistons/heads/block??

HTH,
chris
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Exactly! The puller for a TR would be somewhat different but would get the job done. I have one that I built for the Jaguar V12 (notoriously tough to get the heads off those).

Stay away from the big hammers!

 

It's a TR, he'll need 2 more friends with hair dryers.

 

I have the answer for you, cheap and easy.

1. Build a manifold and adapters that connect all the spark plug holes.
2. Fill the cylinders up with water, stand the engine with the head up.
3. Connect the manifold to the spark plug holes.
4. Put some nuts, loose, on the studs.
5. Connect a pressure washer to the manifold.
6. Turn it on.

Head pops off.

If the valves are bent, make plates to cover the intake/exhaust runners in the head

You now have made a pressure device. This is the same thing, though more sophisticated, that they use to hydroform metal.

Start with a 1750 PSI unit and move up. Fitting for the manifold are cheap.

Perhaps I could patent this ;-0

 

I'm not so sure about these liquid pressure-based solutions as you lose the force as soon as any head motion occurs (i.e., as soon as the seal is broken). Moorespeed is presently replacing my TR head gaskets (as part of a "reseal") and reported needing to fabricate a mechanical puller and having significant resistance until the studs were nearly fully withdrawn from the stud holes in the cyl. head (even after the usual heating + soaking in penetrants/CLR).

 

Forget that.

You'll have water spraying out everywhere once the head moves a few thousandths of an inch. It will still be stuck on the studs with several inches left to go.

Whatever happened with the "turbine car"?

 

This is a good idea, and as this TR engine has bent valves one could assume the pistons will be replaced anyway. This idea is also cheaper than making a fancy head puller that somehow pushes on the head studs.

This also would be quite effective as you would have 6 pushing points.
Pete

 

Bent valves doesn't obviate piston replacement (certainly not all of them). The engine in Speedmade's example was pretty rusty and those pistons couldn't be saved regardless.

The spark plug holes on a TR are only 12 mm rather than 14mm on a 308.

The cost of building a proper fixture to do the job right is certainly less than repairing all the damage caused by doing it "the hard way".

 

It's not the gasket that's stuck. It's corrosion around every one of the studs. That head will probably be a fight until it is most of the way off the studs. The first half inch will probably be he hardest but don't expect it to ever get easy after that.

 

I remember reading about a company that removed broken head studs out of Porsche 911 cases. It was in a book from Pelican, either 101 projects or the engine rebuild book.They have a tool that will electronically(laser or plasma) cut away the center of the stud until there is almost nothing left. This might work for you if you could deliver the block to the machine shop. I have the book at work, Iwill look up the company later. Tepps

 

This is close. In the shop when we had this kind of problem we did one or both of these.

There is a tool called an "impact wrench" They come with a screw driver attachment. Use the flat acrewdriver On the side. you hit the end of the Impact screwdriver with a hammer.
It provides the force but also hits the connection with a fast impact.

The other thing is temperature. As you know metal shrinks when cold and expands when hot. But the base of the motor in ice so it gets cold and shrinks. When it gets cold take a torch and heat the head to a toasty 1200 degress F. That should budge it if not use the impact screw driver. Do not underestmate the impact screw driver this is what they are designed for, this exact type of problem.

You said you have tried a penetrating lubricating oil. In the shop we would soak things over night to make it easier to remove. I think the holding tank was vibrating to help penetration.

If none of these work you will have to take it to a automotive machine shop. They will have equipment that can remove it.

I picked 1200 degrees as a safe limit because I do not know if the metal is heat treated tool alum or A53 steel. Also the vintage of the Tessi may make it sand cast not investment cast as modern engines. Sand cast is weaker it should not be a problem at 1200 degrees

Good Luck

Lee

 

Do not attempt anything recommended here!

1200 degrees F is the approximate melting point of aluminum. FAIL

Using an air chisel is the last thing needed here unless you want to chop the head off a little at a time.

 

I checked this gentlmans profile and he does restoration for a living. Maybe he can give you a better and safer way.

I do not agree with 1200 degrees depends on the grade of alum. This is why I said toasty hot.

Also the impact screwwdriver is not air driven. If it was that may damage the head.

What I wrote is how machine shops for a manufacturing company do these things.

Good luck

Lee

 

Very expensive but doable. You need to find a machine shop with both a wire EDM and a sinker EDM. The wire EDM has to be large enough to accomodate the engine.

Use the EDM to slice the heads off by burning through the head gaskets from one side of the head to the other. This will leave you with heads that have the remainder of the studs stuck in them. Then use the same machine to burn the studs out of the head. Finally, to get the studs out of the cases will require a sinker EDM and many passes.

I say expensive because the machine shop time to do this could be cost prohibitive. Maybe time to look for another motor. This is what is done on some old aircraft motors that are worth so much money that the cost can be justified.

Edited to say that the TR heads can only have half of the studs burned out with the wire EDM. The other half will have to be burned out using the sinker EDM. And that's even more money.