Cyl head removal

I've done my searching and couldn't really come across and definite answer to my question.

Can I get my 4.0 head off without having to seperate the intake and exhaust manifold from it?

This is on an 88' XJ by the way

Do you have a hoist? the head is like 65 lbs, header ~15lb and intake ~10lb with everything bolted on. So its close to 100lb and i can say the bare head is not easy to remove with 2 people let along all that stuff still bolted to it.

yeah i have something to lift it with

ok, how are you gonna attach a hoist to the head? rocker studs?

thats kinda what I'm trying to figure out.
Has anybody done it succesfully and how did you do it?

Not only is it possible but my Haynes manual suggests doing it this way.

Oh yea cause the haynes manuals are the best, those things arent worth the paper they're printed on. Its not hard to pull the intake/exhaust, just lay underneath and remove the lower bolts with a ratching 9/16ths (or 1/2 I dont remember which) then pull the top. You can use a socket with a u-joint and extension but I think thats harder.

or you can find bolts and use the rocker boss's. There are no other attachment points

Sounds good, I'll try and take some pics and let everybody know how it goes. Only reason I don't want to seperate them is because they already a brand new gasket and all I really need to change is the lifters, pushrods, and cam. Idiot I got the jeep from didn't check any of it when he did the head gasket.

One note to make this a little easier for you. The head bolt on the rear/drivers side is a bear to get to. I found that a 1/2" ratchet with a deep socket was too long and couldn't get into that space so I went out and bought a 3/8" breaker bar and deep socket. It leaves just enough room to get the sucker off.

When reinstalling note that you need to make sure that that bolt is hanging through the head when you reinstall because otherwise you won't have enough room to get it back into place.

I wasn't too happy with the way AMC designed this combo. That rear head bolt will be your first problem but the head gasket has no alignment dowels and just sits there so it is a royal pain to get the sucker to align when you are reaching over the rad to place it.

Have fun :roll:

One good thing about assembling the head & manifold outside of the engine bay is that it's a whole lot easier to get to all of the fasteners. There's no problem doing it this way if you've got some help to horse that thing around.

One thing that does help is to make yourself a couple of alignment studs. Get a couple of cheap bolts with the right threads, cut them off so that you'll have a half inch or so extending above the block, and cut a slot in them so that you can turn them out with a screwdriver and then fish them out with a magnet. Don't forget to chamfer the edges and smooth out everything you can so you don't score the head mating surface.

I've done it both ways, and it is much, much easier to do it with the manifolds attached. Like Jeff said, it is easier to tighten and properly torque all of the manifold bolts.

Cool, thats what I wanted to hear. Now I'm just hoping that I don't find more bad parts than I think I have in there.

Its much easier to pull the manifolds and head at the same time. Easier to get to the manifold bolts for proper torque. If you are just doing a head gasket you won't have to replace the manifold gasket. And besides you really want to lift that 60+lb head off the engine by hand?