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1979-1993 & 94 Conv [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
I just replaced the head gasket on my 87-900-8v-non-turbo. Here are my thoughts on this.
1. You do not need to remove the wp-alt belts (although I did since I was replacing the alt anyways.
2. The lower bolt for the AC bracket froze and I rounded it (difficult to access with the alt in the car). While it may have been possible (doubt it) to remove the other bolts on the alt bracket (the frozen one is shared with the AC bracket), I elected to remove the oil filter housing (very easy), cut the head off the lower alternator mounting bolt, and bring the bolt out towards the front bumper. I wish I had done this first...it is so much easier to remove the alternator this way.
3. With the top two bolts that hold the AC bracket removed, it is easy to pull the AC bracket back to remove the 3 bolts that hold the AC idler (and bracket) to the head. Although, I'm not sure why I removed the idler bracket, it looks like it could have just come out with the head.
4. For 900's (8v at least) prior to 1988, the head bolt torque procedure from Elring (both on their web site and the instructions that came with the gasket) is: 60 Nm, 80 Nm, 15 min warm up, 30 min cool down, loosen, 80 Nm, 90 degree turn. This seemed to work well for me. I also dipped the head bolts in a little oil before I put them in. For cars built after 1987, just ignore the warmup/cool down/loosen phases.
5. The Townsend advice to use an old head bolt with the top cut off to align the head as you reinstall it, is great advice. I re-used all my head bolts, so I just bought a low quality bolt that had the same threads (but was an inch longer) instead.
6. Nylon straps through the holes in the chain sprocket work well to keep the chain attached and in time.
7. Total job time, 20 hrs.
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