Im sending my cylinder head to maperformance to get there stage 5 port and polish job done. Im just torn over whether i should attempt this in my garage with my non-mechanic buddies. These friends of mine have helped me to swap out my turbo, o2 dump, removing my exhaust&intake manifold. My local shop said he could remove my head and put the new one on granted i have all the parts he needs for 600 dollars. So is that price worth the huge headache to just have my shop do it for me, or should me and the crew take on the challenge? also i have the tensoner tool, but are there anyother special tools that i would need? i pretty organized so labeling everything and packaging it all up wouldnt be a great problem, but i think putting the cams back in right could be an issue, anyways your help would be greatly appreciated, thanks ahead of time.

 

Taking the head off is cake really.

However if your worried about getting the cams back in, everything torqued properly, and all timing bits back together correctly then take it somewhere.

 

It isn't terribly difficult. The one area that can be tricky is as gsrboi80 stated, the timing and cam components. You have to be very careful with these because any foul up can have drastic consequences. You'd hate to re-install a fresh head only to smash the valves because you screwed the timing belt or cam gears up. My advice, for your first time, take it to a shop, but see if you can watch them take it off. That way you can see how it should be done, and then in the future you can do it yourself at home.

 

Thanks for the info and ur thoughts, there is one person that's willing to help me with the head removal that actually works at a shop and knows how to do the job, hopefully he will come through for this build. Any special tools needed that I don't know about for the head removal?

 

Timing belt tensioner tool. Other than that just normal sockets and tools. An air compressor with an impact wrench or socket is a nice thing to have, especially when putting things back together.

 

Its really not a special tools thing, its an attention to detail thing. Thats the reason why I personally dont work with anybody on my car, that way I control the outcome and make sure its done rt. If you and your "crew" have done this sort of thing before -then great have at it...if you haven't step away and let someone else do it. Just my .02. the job is easy for those with the rt tools and the rt experience-- sounds like you may have the tools but not the experience.

 

+1 on attanetion to detail. If you consider a torque wrench a special tool, then you'll need one of those too. Call me Mr. Over protective, but anything to do with the block/head internally or externally gets the proper tq applied. I believe there is an entire thread in the engine/drivetrain section just for tq specs of every nut and bolt.

 

I agree with all of this. Another thing to pay specific attention to torquing properly is the head studs. You don't want to over tighten or leave too loose. Get yourself a shop manual for the car too if you don't already have one. I learned so much from it my first few times wrenching on the car. It has everything you will ever need.

 

The tensioner tool will keep the tensioner in place and belt on the crank. Line all of the timing marks up. Zip tie the belt to the cam gears and pop them off. Take off your intake mani and exhast mani. The intake mani bracket that connects the mani to the block is a ***** but you will get it after a while. You might need a rubber mallet to break the seal between block and head but other than that everything is cake.

When reinstalling I would use a tq wrench on the cam gears, head studs , cam caps and the valve cover to a smaller degree.

In my humble opinion I think you should do it yourself. Its not a hard job and in this hobby you should know how to work on your own car. It only makes this hobby more fun.

Good luck either way.

 

^^ Attention to detail and torque specs are huge. but taking the heads off is not to hard of a job.

 

You hit it on the head. Every enthusiast should work on their own car and get to know how it all works. Keeps it new and fun.

 

Hey thanks so much guys, your right about the intake Mani being a pain in the butt but I've taken it off before when I sent it to buschur for P/P. Yes I have a tensor tool and a torque wrench, so it looks like I've made my final decision to call up the crew this weekend. And when I speak of the crew it's 2 guys I trust with not only my car but my kids aswell, we are all close friends. One last thing I can tell everyone is that in the past to make the build stress free we always rock 80's tunes during the build lol, hey thanks again guys and yes I have the shop manual on my laptop.