Stiff studs

[adam quantrill]

Well despite "only doing them up finger tight" five of the ARP head studs refuse to budge during my head gasket replacement.

I'm almost half-way through the job. Have degreased and replaced the nuts and loctited them to the studs in the home they'll budge in the morning. The loctite can then be removed with heat.

Any other bright ideas? They do have a hex socket but I seem to have mislaid exactly the right allen key.... should be 3/16" according to various websites.

[tofts]

"shock" them, hit them clean in the center with a stout hammer and a punch/drift, this will shock the threads and probably make it much easier to remove. Alternatively, an impact driver will do the same job.

[Number 7]

Assume you're doing the O/S bank then Adam? If so, you hit the same problem that I did earlier this year - the pedal box is in the way.I didn't have hex sockets on mine, so had to resort to getting the engine moved on it's mountings to get the head off. I would be getting the correct allen key or ratchet bit in that situation. Good luck.

[adam quantrill]

Yeah engine already forward I figured that out pretty quickly, you have to disconnect the exhaust and g/b mounting as well as the engine mounts of course.

The last resort will be to lift it up the studs leaving them in place but there's much more manoeuvring available with all studs removed.

[adam quantrill]

Success! My centre pinch fitted onside the allen key head and I could punch away without casing damage. Plus a few more loctitings on some of the nuts that moved, all studs out (or at least out of the block one wants to stay in the head...) and the head is off.