RE: The head on my '87 5ktqw is off. now what?

[quk@isham-research.demon.co.uk (Phil Payne)]

In message <933713F1FB7BD111AC2300A0C98F1AD10102C277@MILXPR06> "Buchholz, Steven" writes:

> As I recall from when I did the head on the QTC those years ago the idea was
> to rotate the crank so that all of the pistons were down away from the deck
> to ensure that no valves are pushing against pistons and lifting the head.

Makes not a bit of sense.

If there's no cam in the head, all the valves are up.

If there _is_ a cam in the head, it's a matter of seconds to reinstall
the damned, accursed Woodruff key and cam gear, and turn the cam roughly
to TDC.

I'd be _much_ more worried about returning the engine to TDC after
fitting a head that already had a cam in it.

> I've heard others say to attach the exhaust manifold before reinstalling the
> head ... I'm not sure that's the way I'm going to do it.  I was able to get
> at all of the nuts for the exh man when I took the head off this time ...
> and this was in fact the way I installed the head on the QTC when I did it
> all those years ago.  IMHO the head is on the verge of being too difficult
> to handle without assistance ... with the EM attached it would definitely be
> too much for me.

No.  Do _NOT_ try handling a head with the exhaust manifold attached
on your own, unless you have lifting gear.  It's definitely a two-man
job.

The only real show-stopper on the ur-quattro is that the turbo has to
be bolted up before the downpipe, as the latter obscures the bottom
left turbo to exhaust manifold nut.  I've done three now, and I've
always assembled to the manifold in the engine bay.

--
 Phil Payne
 Phone: 0385 302803   Fax: 01536 723021
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