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remove heads with engine still in?
kombikim - July 18th, 2003 at 10:18 PM

I know it may be time consuming, but is it possible to remove cylinder heads in Kombi with engine still in place, anybody out there done it?

[Edited on 18-7-2003 by kombikim]

1303Steve - July 18th, 2003 at 11:05 PM

Hi

You can on the WBX but not on a T2 like the one in your avator.

1302Steve

kombikim - July 18th, 2003 at 11:29 PM

rats,
I am in big trouble then:(

duncombemu - July 19th, 2003 at 02:15 AM

Why are you in trouble kombikim? What's wrong?
Regards,
Mark:thumb

fish - July 19th, 2003 at 05:21 AM

Borrow a floor jack and it takes about 25min to get your motor out onto the floor. heaps easier to work on and pull the heads off. don't think you can take all the tinware off from under the bus, if you can it will take you longer in the end. heaps easy to drop the motor. I have changed one motor to another in 2 hrs, and i'm no mechanic, i'm a bloody builder. cheers, fish

Bizarre - July 19th, 2003 at 07:50 AM

More importantly Kim - Where are you??

koolkarmakombi - July 19th, 2003 at 11:43 AM

When I was a VW novice with my first kombi I was used to working on 2 and 4 stroke race bikes. You gotta contort your hands and get by without a lot of special service tools and stuff. (and swear lots)

I needed to get a head off once to looksee at a valve but lived in units with a body corporate nazi (but not a nazi vw'er) and no work beyond 'regular cleaning and preventive maintenance' was allowed and this bad karma dude prowled the place 24/7. So no dropping the engine and gearbox. I put the rear on ramps, lay full length underneath and removed the head. I swore a lot. I scraped the crap outa my knuckles. Later I pulled the engine and gearbox to refit the tinware properly so it didnt leak so much air.

So the advice from me is pull the lot. Its faster, easier and you can do the job properly.

:beer:beer

kombikim - July 19th, 2003 at 01:14 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by blue74l
More importantly Kim - Where are you??


Got home Friday night thanks Barry,
everywhere was bloody freezing at night, not just Ayers Rock

problem is I have nowhere to pull the motor, & it might be out for a while depending on the heads, hopeully it will go for a while yet

KruizinKombi - July 19th, 2003 at 06:34 PM

Kim, you may be able to get away with undoing the rear support bar and the bolts at the top of the gearbox to lower the motor a bit on a trolly jack without actually removing the motor from the gearbox. I'm not sure if it will be enough, but it just might gain you enough clearance to get the heads off. :)

I pulled my motor out completely, even though I was only planning on a quick head replacement, because its the easiest way to do it....

11CAB - July 19th, 2003 at 06:58 PM

Firstly, Yes it is possible to remove the heads on a type 4 motor in a 68-79 Kombi, I have done it numerous times and as far as the time goes its about the same as taking the engine out & then removing the head. So if you dont have the room to remove the engine then you can remove the head in the car.
Graham

vw54 - July 19th, 2003 at 07:16 PM

Much easier to pull the engine and do the work, it will be quicker as well

david - July 19th, 2003 at 10:42 PM

i thought you said it was a newly reconditioned motor ,why not take it back to them

kombikim - July 20th, 2003 at 04:42 PM

not newly enough, unfortunately now has about 12000 k's on it & I don't want the same problem cropping up again

amazer - July 20th, 2003 at 09:35 PM

I have tried it on my old 73 and it couldnt be done. RH side. I could undo everything but I couldnt get the head right off. Even if I could get it off, it's a lot harder doing it in the car. For the sake of undoing a few more bolts and a couple of hoses, its a crazy thing to want to do.

helbus - July 20th, 2003 at 10:39 PM

I took LH head off while motor was in and it took forever.

Definitley easier when I took the motor out.

I just drove it op on ramps and there was just enough clearance to take it out the backwith the airbox off.