Stuck Heads?

[Ryan00TJ]

Pulled my 360ci SBC from my boat this morning and started tearing it down. Everything went fine as usual until I got to the heads. Removed the 12 pt ARP nuts and washers and started my normal routine to get the head off the block but to no avail. I have ARP headstuds. It seems the studs have seized around the head on the lower boltholes but not the ones under the valvecover. I've used propane to heat the studs and try to get them to spin. This resulted in all but 3 turning freely. I'm very leary of prying as they are good condition AFR 195 aluminum heads. I've never run into anything like this before and am at a loss. Tomorrow i'm going to try acetylene heat on the block where the studs screw into and see if I can get the last ones to spin.
Anyone else ever run into this problem? I've been around and have never seen this before. I'm at a complete loss!

[Moneypitt]

It is not unusual for heads to be damm tight to get off. Unless there is something funny going on with the steel studs and the aluminum heads, it is probably just the gaskets and their "printoseal" type adhesive sticking. I understand you worry about those high dollar heads, but it would seem you could do a little prying in the valley area using wood as a guard against nicking the heads. A 2x in the valley, and a 1x under a portion of the head with a cheater bar between, you should be able to exert enough pressure to pop them loose. It would be a little messy, but you could also fill a cylinder with light oil and turn the motor over by hand to hydrolic the head up, (plug in, valves closed)....I've had some tough ones, but never had to worry about high dollar heads and just pried them off.......I would worry more about the torch method, than the pry method.............Good luck, MP

[SmokinLowriderSS]

Just leave 1 nut a few threads on a stud, somewhere in the middle, just in case the head "pops" loose (which it will) to prevent it from trying to check gravity. I would think they are stuck far more to the gasket and the alignment dowels than to the studs.

[Ryan00TJ]

Success was achieved this afternoon, only with the help of a torch. Galvanic corrosion from the metal in the aluminum headholes over 10 years was pretty nasty. I had to get the stud ends red hot and then hammer a 10mm impact socket onto the end of the stud. Then went to work with my Ingersoll Rand impact gun to get them out. To give you an idea how seized they were I twisted in half one headstud with the impact gun. Luckily it was the last one and I was able to get the head off.
To anyone who uses headstuds with aluminum heads for long time periods use liberal amounts of antiseize in the head bolt holes and also on the non threaded portion of the headstud to keep this from happening.
http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/9968/seizedarpheadstudsmt5.th.jpg (http://img115.imageshack.us/my.php?image=seizedarpheadstudsmt5.jpg)
http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/3711/corrodedvsnonarpheadstudsdd0.th.jpg (http://img115.imageshack.us/my.php?image=corrodedvsnonarpheadstudsdd0.jpg)
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/5496/snappedinhalfarpheadstudlx0.th.jpg (http://img133.imageshack.us/my.php?image=snappedinhalfarpheadstudlx0.jpg)
[img=http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/3201/acetylenetorchloanedbydavesloanij4.th.jpg] (http://img133.imageshack.us/my.php?image=acetylenetorchloanedbydavesloanij4.jp g)

[GofastRacer]

To anyone who uses headstuds with aluminum heads for long time periods use liberal amounts of antiseize in the head bolt holes and also on the non threaded portion of the headstud to keep this from happening.
Anytime you bolt into aluminum you use anti-sieze, not just studs!..