Im about to be in the process of extracting my cylinder heads. Has anyone done this before that can give me some friendly hints so the operation goes smoothly and she recovers quickly?

Thanks,
evan

 

If you take your time and keep organized you should be fine, I'm hoping you've had experience with this before. You shouldn't have to take out the engine, but remove the front bumper and frame that holds the radiator and lights, etc. so you can get at the timing chain better and allows more room. What are you doing it for anyways? Great time to replace any pulley accessories and clean the cylinders.

DONT REUSE GASKETS, or half *** anything for that matter.

 

possibly cracked my head or blew the gasket so im pullin it. And no i have not done this before but im pretty handy and the head almost off. i just need a few more bolts and shes off.

 

check in if you need any help, if you want to go even further you may be able to take off the blocks to replace the cylinder rings and deglaze the walls

 

Have to say i havent heard of deglazing but it kinda sounds like I would have the cylinder walls shaved a little? Also, do you know whereI could get the Vag 3452 tool for the head bolts.

 

Not sure, AudiWorld may have a link to it though somewhere, I remember seeing a similar topic of replacing the heads on there in the DIY.

Deglazing shaves a small portion of the cylinder walls off, very small, but what that does it gets rid of all the oil build up (hence the name de-glazing because of the shiney finish from the oil) and slightly roughens the surface for a better break in when you get new rings. Costs 20 bucks or so I think at Sears and hooks up to a power drill, sounds ghetto but it works just fine.

 

aahhh i know what your talking about. I used to work there and saw the tool. So do you recommend this?

 

if you replace the rings, yes, always, it slightly hones the walls as well so that the new rings will fit better for break in since they are shaped to fit the old rings after thousands of miles of driving

 

hard job?

 

Getting the head off is a PITA. I have the head bolts loose, and all the coolant lines, also the down pipe is off and it still wont come out. Any ideas?