Alrighty, I am down to the valve springs and head bolts (8 of them?) I tried to loosen a bolt just to see with a 15mm socket with a 3/4 socket wrench and put all my might into it, nothing. . . the bastard would not even budge. Then I slipped with the extension and cut my hand on the side of the head. (hates his life). I was curious if you could suggest something else to get them off. Perhaps a close enough standard socket 19/32 is close, right? Reason being I have a nice 1/2 inch wrench I could whoop the bolts ass with. Also, after I take the blasted sprocket off the end of the crank can I remove all the piston goodness from the bottom? What size bolts can I use with the harmoninc puller? TIA

Trevis

>Alrighty, I am down to the valve springs and head bolts (8 of
>them?) I tried to loosen a bolt just to see with a 15mm socket
>with a 3/4 socket wrench and put all my might into it,
>nothing. . . the bastard would not even budge. Then I slipped
>with the extension and cut my hand on the side of the head.
>(hates his life). I was curious if you could suggest something
>else to get them off. Perhaps a close enough standard socket
>19/32 is close, right? Reason being I have a nice 1/2 inch
>wrench I could whoop the bolts ass with. Also, after I take
>the blasted sprocket off the end of the crank can I remove all
>the piston goodness from the bottom? What size bolts can I use
>with the harmoninc puller? TIA
>
>Trevis

In order to take the head bolts off, you should use a 1/2" breaker bar. Trying to do it with a 3/8 ratchet would be nearly impossible unless you put socket extensions on the handle to give you more leverage. Also, when you remove them, do NOT just remove the bolts at random. There is a specific removal sequence for those bolts in the FSM and if you don't follow it, you will probably wind up with a warped head. As for the pistons, as soon as you have the head and the oil pan off, you can remove the pistons. You will take off the rod caps from underneath the motor and push the pistons and rods out of the top of the block from underneath. Don't forget to ridge ream the top of each cylinder to get rid of carbon buildup. That buildup can ruin your rings (although you probably dont care about that if you are getting new ones).

To take the stock crank pulley off, you need to use a 5 ton 3 jaw puller. To remove the gear that the timing belt rides on, you will use a harmonic balancer puller. When you buy the puller, it will come with bolts to use to remove the gear. The only thing is that usually the bolts supplied are a bit too short, so just find out which one threads in well, then go to a hardware store and buy 3 of the same size/pitch that are about an inch longer and you should be good to go from there.

^^^^ Good info there. I want to chime in for a few things, get a breaker bar and a tool called a wabble extension (you only need this when removing the head bolts with the cams still in the car. If your cams are out then you don't need the wabble tool.) As for the timing gear, my harmonic puller came with bolts that were way too big for the holes. The bolt size and thread that works is the same as your timing belt cover bolts. If you just take one of those to the store and get a 3-4 inch long bolt in the same size/ thread pitch. I got my bolts at pep boys.

FYI - those 3 bolts that go into the sprocket are M6-1.0*at least 70mm long. You can get them at Ace Hardware. Have fun looking for them. It is a bitch. :rolleyes

To get the pistons out from the bottom, you will have to remove the crank which involves separating the bedplate and removing your oil filter adapter plate and that, in itself, is fun too. I can't imagine trying to reassemble the bedplate while laying under the car. Ugh. We had enough trouble with it out of the car...

Good luck to you sir! :thumbsup

You can do it!

Thanks for the help guys, I am going to stop by the fastener place in about an hour and try to find that bolt. So far the tear down has been pretty straight forward, (thanks to Dino for the manuals). Any idea where I can get a hold of a tool to compress the valve springs, I believe it looks like a C-clamp?

Trevis

Rent it from autozone.