I got all the nuts off the studs without snapping one of the studs, without stripping the nut, and without breaking anything else.
Getting the head to actually come off has been another issue. I was able to get it loose by banging a screwdriver into the (hairline) gap between the block and the head. The Moyer Marine shop manual recommends filing down a screwdriver so it's has a nice taper (basically, you make a shank worthy of a prison-yard out of it) and using it to pry the block off the head. This worked, to a degree, but my real success came when I used the smallest screwdrivers I had. They were just small enough to work and just big enough to create enough of a gap to get a stronger screwdriver in there to pry apart the two pieces.
And I discovered that I have the dreaded "green gasket." That means the head gasket was either never replaced, or it was replaced, at best, 20 years ago. From what I have read at the Moyer Marine community boards, the green gasket was responsible for so many compression failures that people began to think the engine itself had come to the end of its service life. Apparently an engineer at a gasket company heard about the problem and invented the "steel reinforced" gasket we all use today.
I'm going back tomorrow to see what I can do about getting the head all the way off. Already, by peeking into the gap, I can see that it's a damned mess in there. I'm eager to clean, get the head back on, and then clean and paint the engine.
This first picture is the exhaust manifold (it's upside down). I think that this is the last stop for the cooling water and for the exhaust gases before they hit the muffler and exhaust pipe (next stop: the atmosphere, there to trap some CO2).
And this picture is the tap-tap pry-pry method of getting the head off the block. Effective!
3 replies:
I'll include an email/comment from the Don himself in case you are reading this because you need help removing the head of your own Atomic 4 and are not a member of the Moyer Marine community forum:
"For starters, as long as one or more studs are hanging up, do not apply excessive force on the other end of the head. It sounds as though you need to do more tapping and oiling of the studs. Put a nut on top of each of the problematic studs and tap them sideways until you can see penetrating oil disappearing into the annular space between the stud and the head. As long as any of the studs refuse to take any penetrating oil into their annular space, you will have almost zero hope of the head sliding vertically off those studs.
In a worst case scenario, you will have to work those stubborn studs loose with a stud removing tool as shown in our online catalog (sorry if this sounds like an infomercial). The rotational forces are frequently more effective in breaking a stud loose from the head than a simple straight-line vertical pull.
In a worst-worst case scenario, a stud will twist off above the head rather than yield (even rotationally). In these cases, we drill an 1/8" pilot hole down to 1/2" or so from the bottom of the head, and then drill a 3/8" hole to the same depth to remove the upper part of the stud. The small length of stud remaining will usually release its hold on the head and still be enough to remove with a vise grip after the head slides off the short stub of stud."
Don
Hey, Jarrett...
I think at one point earlier in the winter you'd said something about if I wanted to come out and race -
I suggest you read my last 2 posts & think about that. I'm cursed, see. Should've told you when you fi Don't know what I did but the curse has screwed up 2 kayak races & may have been the cause of schooner mayhem & misery one year at the Mayor's Cup (2nd to last paragraph of this post.
I am going in a low-key kayak race in Island Park this weekend - sort of testing the waters to see if the racing curse is still in place.
I was halfway through the post when I realized you weren't talking about a toilet. Damned nauti-speak.
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