Cylinder Head Removal

suffolkpete

Member
I need to take the head off my 2200SC to replace the O ring as it is leaking oil down the side of the engine. HBoL seems to imply that you should go through the procedure of removing the camshaft, placing spacers under the bolts where the cam carriers went and re-torqueing them, and then removing them again to remove the head. Is this correct? What do other people do and are there any other tips or pitfalls? I will grind in the valves at the same time as the car has done 110,000 miles and probably hasn't been touched before.
 
No need at all, seeing as you are removing the head. Do be careful to slacken the head bolts progressively to avoid any possibility of cracking the carrier, which is supposed to be a concern though I've never seen a broken cam carrier. On the other hand, cracked bearing caps on the carrier are pretty common.

Yours
Vern
 
You should peg the engine to EP before removing, and then remove the head bolts in the correct order, otherwise the camshaft can break into 4 pieces. When in the EP position if you look at the camshaft there will be two lobes fully open, one either side of a cap (second one back), you need to be slackening that cap last. If you do it before the others, you're at risk of breaking the shaft because the two lobes push upwards, and break the cam under that cap, and next to the two caps on either side. I slacken the front cap first, and then the rear, then work forwards.
 
Hi all I'm about to take my cylinder head off my 2000tc I might be being a bit thick but how do you find the Ep point and is that how the correct position for the calm sharft?
Regards
Kevin
 
There's an "EP" mark on the flywheel that you can see through the access plate on the bellhousing, and at that point a peg will fit through the engine bearer plate, locking the flywheel in position.This has to be done with the very rearmost cam lobe pointing directly upwards, and when that's the case, the camshaft can be locked using the peg on top of the front bearing cap.
 
Thanks Harvey, I've had the head off before but made the classic mistake of not getting the shimms in the right order.fortunately I've found someone who can re-shim it for me so the can shaft has to come off.
 
kevinchown said:
Thanks Harvey, I've had the head off before but made the classic mistake of not getting the shimms in the right order.fortunately I've found someone who can re-shim it for me so the can shaft has to come off.

You don't need to remove the head to reset the valve clearances. Just remove the camshaft after pegging up, and then removing the cam bearing caps, and replacing them with spacers.
 
Cheers again for the advice, now in two minds whether to take the head off... The head was converted to run on lead free would that mean that the original shims should be ok to re-use? I think I've got my head round replacing the camm shaft brackets with spacers [someone said that two M14 nuts does the trick] so in theory would just mean getting the original shims in the right order??
 
kevinchown said:
The head was converted to run on lead free would that mean that the original shims should be ok to re-use? so in theory would just mean getting the original shims in the right order??

What shims you need is totally dependent on what the valve clearances are. Measure the clearances, and if they're correct you won't need to change any of them. If not calculate what shims you need to make the clearances correct.

kevinchown said:
I think I've got my head round replacing the camm shaft brackets with spacers [someone said that two M14 nuts does the trick

I have heard similar said. The depth of the nuts needs to be similar to the depth of the cap.
 
Harvey once I've replaced the cam shaft brackets with spacers, does that mean you can measure the clearance of each lobe of the cam free one after the other/ if so then surely that will change once the head is torque down ??
 
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