[Buttaz]

So my friends and I are almost done with dissembling my 1996 3.9L V6 mustang to repair the head gasket (or so we hope), but we cant get the head bolts removed. I know we have to remove them in the reverse of the tightening sequence, and we've tried soaking it with WD-40 overnight, to no avail. Any suggestions?

[stephen]

Originally Posted by Buttaz So my friends and I are almost done with dissembling my 1996 3.9L V6 mustang to repair the head gasket (or so we hope), but we cant get the head bolts removed. I know we have to remove them in the reverse of the tightening sequence, and we've tried soaking it with WD-40 overnight, to no avail. Any suggestions?

They are very tight. I used a 3/4 inch breaker bar and length of pipe.

The correct socket size is metric (I believe 15 mm).

[Buttaz]

yea, it seems to be 15mm, but its also not as tight a fit as id like, assuming were putting so much pressure on the bolt. we have a 1/4 inch drive socket with a 3 foot breaker bar (pipe) and I had my left hand holding the socket on the bolt, and my other hand attempting to turn the breaker bar, assisted by my friend Eddie, and with both of us pushing on it, we still couldn't remove it. i think it might be due to faulty installation because we've noticed that the engine has been opened by the previous owner because there are after-market bolts used on some of the other components and headers. Maybe he air-ratcheted them on, who knows? I just am worried that we might break the head off of the bolt because at first we were using a craftsman 3/8 drive with a 4 inch extension, and the extension snapped in half trying to remove it. IDK, it just seems hay too hard

[99v6stang]

i just took the head off two days ago on my 99. First, you have to use name brand tools, craftsman or ace hardware tools work very good. I broke a socket, a rachet, and an extention because they were all crappy brands. It is 15mm and i used 3/8 drive with 4 feet of pipe. What i found to work the best is to push in a jerky motion like your trying to slam it forward and that breaks the threads loose fairly easy. I didnt even use any lubricants. Also i found the the 4 bolts under the valve cover were looser than the outside 4. Goodluck

[Onemanzu]

their is your problem... your only using three foot pipe... and you gotta make sure your tools are name brand... simple mistake happens to the best of us...

ha

try giving it a good jerk... i struggled with my pulleys just cause the rotated... my fat ass dad came out gave it a good jerk and off came to pulley...

now im hoping that other people read what i just wrote... because it sounds so fucked up i can't stop laughin

[Buttaz]

I have been using brand name tools, and ive broken 2 craftsman extensions, a stanley extension and sicket wrench, and now this...

I got some PB Blaster, and I found a 1/2 inch drive 15mm socket at napa, this thing is beastly. or so I thought. We matched it up, slapped on our 4 foot breaker bar, and wrenched away.


and broke THE SOCKET






its preposterous


any thoughts/suggestions?

[Hourofpain]

shit dude...


get an air ratchet

[burin_rubber]

if it broke doesnt that mean u get a free one from the company

[Buttaz]

tomorrow I'm goin to take it back to NAPA and see if they'll refund me, and I'm going to get an impact socket, I don't see that breaking, ever lol

[nba1341]

Originally Posted by Onemanzu my fat ass dad came out gave it a good jerk and off came to pulley...

thats not nice! lol

[Onemanzu]

: ) my bad

my dad use to have a 65 fast back tho... he was readin over my shoulder and saw your car like three weeks ago and was like... dude i had one of those... then some hip word i didn't recognize ... i was like okay dad

if you get an imppact gun try to find some socket that go with it... i was having trouble getting some of my own 1/2 inch drive ones to come of the gun ... then got some made for the gun and it worked better

[stephen]

[quote="Buttaz"]I have been using brand name tools, and ive broken 2 craftsman extensions, a stanley extension and sicket wrench, and now this...

I got some PB Blaster, and I found a 1/2 inch drive 15mm socket at napa, this thing is beastly. or so I thought. We matched it up, slapped on our 4 foot breaker bar, and wrenched away.


and broke THE SOCKET






its preposterous

That's incredible. I used a 3/4" breaker bar with a reducer to 1/2" drive and a 1/2" drive Craftsman socket and had no problems. Someone has tightened the head bolts way too tight.

I see two options:


1. an air wrench with an impact socket

2. use a 3/4" drive socket with a 3/4" drive breaker bar.

The problem is if the bolts were overtightened that much you could have a cracked block.

Another option is to remove the engine and take it to someone with a very strong impact wrench.

[stephen]

A further thought is you may want to go with an impact socket (six point) and air gun. As tight as these bolts are you may round off the heads and then you will really be stuck.

[Buttaz]

Finally got it off. We used a 4foot floor jack handle as a breaker bar, had to sawzall the exhaust before the cats to get them out of the way, and once we had a clear shot at the bolts, we PB blastes 'em and gave it hell. they FINALLY came off lol

[stephen]

I'm glad to hear that you finally got the bolts out. On mine I used a 3/4" breaker bar plus a 4' length of pipe.