A really good day :-)

[David Templeton]

Hi all,

Well the wagon is in the garage and I started to do the head replacement at
about 10am this morning. I started undoing all the harnesses and labeling
them, did the vacuum hoses as well. As we all know this has to be done cause
I can't remember where they all go after reassembly :-)

I figured I would try to unbolt the intake with the head in the car.
Presto, all the intake bolts came out with very little problem. So off with
the intake. 20% of the hassles out the way.

With the exaust manifold in plain site, figured had nothing to loose and
started to undo the manifold nuts. 9 out of 10 were on with less than 5lbs
of torque!  The last one on the bottom would not allow a wrench :-(

So, after trying for an hour I then looked at the exaust manifold to pipe
connection.  3 bolts, not a problem right? Well, the first two came out
easy, the last one, right by the block was the hard one. After 20 minutes of
scratched hands and 1/8th turn ratchets, the last one came out.

So, I have stopped there cause I still need to drain the antifreeze before
proceeding.

Just a note, it seems DPO put on a scrap yard starter and when they bolted
it on the didn't put the top bolt in all the way. It was 1/4" from being
completely seated!  No wonder the starter had a hard time starting :-)

So far I have had estimates of 8 hours from shops to do this job, so far I
have 5 hours into it, I'm thinking not bad so far.

Fun and games...

More to come, stay tuned...
David A. Templeton
'85 5Ks wagon