Head Removal

[Mr. Spool]

How hard is it to remove the head on a 96 ka24de, and is it worth attempting while in the car. or would I be better off just replacing the whole engine instead.

[s13silady]

it can be done... ive done it on my 93 dohc while it was still in my car...a little time consuming but possible... but if you could find a better engine for a good price i would just go that way...

[Dweezil]

Just do the head, why waste the time and money on pulling the engine unless the short block is bad, or your doing a swap.

[Mr. Spool]

I have another head, it is a 96 ka head going on a 91 ka block. What kind of skill does it take to swap it out and about how long am I looking at for the swap.

I have done an engine swap, tranny swap, and turbo installs, but have never opened up an engine before. thanks.

[Andrew Bohan]

i would be more concerned about the wiring modification involved in going from external coil (s13) to internal coil (s14)

[Mr. Spool]

on the distributor, I am doing that right now with no problems. I am going to go back to an s14 head.

[theicecreamdan]

just remember where stuff is supposed to go, other than that its not all that hard, I had to pull the heads off of an '88 4runner v6, took about a day to get it all apart and a week to put it all back on, but I never had an entire day to work on it,

just make sure you set aside enough time to actually work on the car and don't give up.

[Mr. Spool]

do I have to resurface the head or just replace the gasket. also is there anything I should do to the inside of the engine in the process or just swap them.

thanks.

[theicecreamdan]

if you blew the headgasket you will want to check and make sure that the block didnt warp any... I think you just use a straight edge and make sure there aren't any gaps, but I'm not 100% on that process, I think it is described in most haynes/chilton's type manuals.

[Pacman]

You don't need to custom wire anything for the distributor. Just swap the distributor from your '91 and it will work.

[Mr. Spool]

will a compression test tell me if the head is good or just the block. thanks

[tErbo b00st]

Compression test will tell you if you have a blown headgasket or blown rings.

[TheSnail]

ps: Or bent valves.

[MasterOFDrift]

wow if you are about to work on pulling your head out while leaving the engine in the car prepare to have a sore back just from bending over. i don't know if you have a low car or not but if you do prepare to feel the wrath of a sore back 10x worse!!!

I would just somewhat rebuild and make the ngine slightly buffer, repalce some gaskets etc. If i were to decide to pull the engine apart, might as well while your at it.

[Mr. Spool]

Does anybody have an estimate of how long a head swap will take?

[HaLo]

you can do it in 10 hours i guess.