ok, well yesterday i had an urge to start taking apart the car. I'm down to the heads. All the bolts are out of each head, but there seems to be a metal line bolted onto the back of the heads, which runs accross the back of the block. I can't get to that bolt good enough to get the torque i need to get it off. I was wondering what this line was, and what i can do about it. I had an idea to try and get 2 people and pull both heads off at the same time. it appears that this line runs from one head to another, but i can't see if it runs anywhere else. help!?

 

Yeah, that line is a pain to get undone. What we did was cut it and when i took the heads to get machined, they took the bolts out cause they were so stripped. It sucks because I wanted to try and fix it, but I went to the dealer and they are charing me $60 for that. Up to you, but we said screw it and cut it.

 

The way I did it was I got my dad on 1 head and me on the other. I do believe that I did manage to pull 1 of those bolts so that helped out a little.

The line is called the coolant cross-over tube. It bridges the 2 heads to allow coolant to flow between them since it doesnt flow thru the intake manifold like on older SBCs.

 

You could cut it and patch it back together with a piece of hose and some clamps. It isn't subjected to any higher heat or pressure than any other coolant hose on the engine.

 

thanx. i don't really want to cut it, but we'll see

 

all i did was take the passenger side bolt out and take that head off and then i couldn't get to driver side bolt so i left it on and just took that head off with that tube connected and then took bolt out when it was off car.
i was almost at point of cutting it but didn't want to buy another.