Has anyone removed the cylinder head for head studs or something? only reason i ask is because im going to put a new gasket and arp studs in and just wondering how hard it is take of the head. i got the removal and installation sequences but thats it. thanks

 

i got a 06 so i dunno the differences between the l61 and lap, but mine was pretty easy. drain oil and coolant, remove the accessory belt, remove the tensioner, remove the timing chain cover, remove the header and downpipe, remove the injectors, remove intake manifold, take out the timing chain tensioner from the back of the head, remove the valve cover, take off the cam gears, take out the head stud bolts and walaa the head is off. it takes me maybe 2 hours cause my downpipe is a PITA and i got 2 difficult ass nuts on my turbo manifold.

 

that doesnt mess with timing or anything?

 

yea it messes with timing. you gotta retime it when you go to put it back together. if i remember right the exhaust cam will jump when you take the chain off so remember to use a wrench to hold the cam still

 

how hard is it to re-time? and how do u do it?

 

retiming isnt bad. take the cam gears and put them on the cams on the on the exhaust cam there is a diamond or triangle i cant remember that says EXH and make sure that is facing in the 10 o'clock position and for the intake find the INT one and make that face the 2 o'clock position. then when you get that take the gear off and then with the timing cover off the side of the engine turn the crank til you get those everything lined up links lined up to the balance shafts, this is for TDC. ill consult my book for the full information about that portion. its easier for me to do then explain. if you look at the timing chain there are 3 colored links, i think red blue and green. either way make sure those links are facing away from the car and dropped the link down the head so you can attach it to the sprocket that you was turning. there is a white dot that should be at the 5 o'clock position and you the take the link that goes there. shouldnt be too hard to find cause there are two links that will be at the top going onto the cam gears. when you get that lined up you put a cam gear on and line up the link with the intake or exhaust indicator (which ever one youre doin first) and when you get that on you gotta hold the next cam over so you can get the link lined up onto the indicator...thats about it in. if you need more help i will try to get into detail more lol

 

yea the more detail the better. and is there a manual i can buy that has this in text? also, ive been reading about cooling system **** and how did u drain ur coolant? just from the radiator or howd u get it from the block. there are a lot of people saying that draining ur coolant is hard and ull have problems from then on

 

yeah this seems like something i'm gonna take to a shop

 

get the haynes manual, it explains everything. i drained my coolant from the radiator. its a little screw you loosen up on the passenger side. you can also take off the over flos tank to control thd speed it drains but if you takd off thr cap itll get a little messy

 

its the retiming thing i'd be worried about screwing up

 

redcobalt, its really easy. hardest part is cranking the crank to get it retimed. get that dome and its smooth sailing

 

follow the instructioms and youll be good. ive never timed a coil packed car til this and i was nervous as **** lol

 

Did u use any specific tools?

 

you will need a belt tensioner tool, youll need a torque wrench

Serpentine Belt Tool Kit

since its too long i had to bend it in half to fit right since i was workin on the floor. i used a 12 point socket for the head bolt nuts due to my havin ARP head studs...and thats all the special tools i can think of. its a pretty straight forward job

you dont need the wrench parts that comes with it, just the bar itself

 

cant i jsut use like a 1/2in wrench with a appropriate size socket for the belt?

 

no, the tensioner has a 3/8" square fitting that the bar has to go into and you move it so you can loosen up the belt and take it off

 

gotcha, can i buy that at autozone along with that manual? sorry if im asking a lot of questions im trying to get as much info because i dont know if i wanna have a shop do it lol. unless its really easy

 

its cool man ask away. i wish i woulda did a how to on this lol. but im not sure if autozone has the tool or not, if so they will most likely be more then harbor freight if you have one around your area. the manual, i got my from napa. check autozones site to check availability of it

 

im looking on the autozone website and they got "manuals" and "guides" the only one that relates to my car is this: "Haynes/GM, Ford and Chrysler engine performance techbook" unless im looking in the right place.

 

do we need to take the gears off the cam? why im asking that is because is it possible to remove the head without taking the gears off and then somehow locking the cams in place so they dont spin and if i leave the car in gear the crank wont move. just a theory because ive heard of other people doing this on other ohc cars but an ecotec may have a different design

 

get the haynes manual

i have never heard of doin that, but i will be in the same boat of removing me head this weekend...i think i lifted my **** lol

 

ooo you are? if you can pictures or a how to would be great! cuz im not gonna do mine tilllll like next week or 2 weeks

 

When I helped ralliartist take his head off, we marked with white-out where the chain would go on a couple of spots on each cam gear. We suspended the chain with bungies to his hood so it wouldn't fall down. When it was time to put the cams back in, we used crescent wrenches to move each cam and re-align the marks on the cams to the marks on the chain so timing stayed the same.

 

no problem. ill get pics, might even do a how to and see if it gets stickied

i thought about doin that but just to be safe and sure i went around took off the timing cover anyways. but ill prolly try that to save time. if it works ill be happy as slhit lo

 

If you mark everything when taking it out you shouldn't have to retime the car. While you have it apart you should replace the timing chain tensioner as well.