Awww yeah! Head removal time!

In my Rabbit that is. I managed to blow the head coming back from class last week when a coolant hose blew and sent roughly 2/3 of my coolant out over my header, resulting in a very dramatic display of white smoke.

Well after things got patched up and fixed I drove the rest of the way home and found it funning hot. I replaced the thermostat for good measure and it made a marginal difference but it was still running a bit on the warm side.

I drive delivery for a living and since the Rabbit is my daily I drove it for work on Thursday. Well by the end of the night I was getting the loveliest cloud of white smoke for about a minute every time I started it war, Not good.

Well I ordered all the parts and stuff for the repair, it will be here Tuesday. I started pulling the head tonight. It was tedious and frustration due to the previous owner using different sized fasteners on the header flange. I got the header free, the cam and the followers out and all I’m waiting on now is to hit up a snap-on truck tomorrow and get the special triple square driver I need to get the head free. The only real down side was I was unable to get the cam gear free to replace the seal.. I suppose this will be reminded soon enough when I replace the cam and gear for a more aggressive/adjustable setup.

So.. I need to order new stainless steel exhaust studs and some header coating to refinish the header since it’s so accessible now and is very easy to free the rest of the way.

That’s it for now I suppose car stuff, school, and work. Lather rinse repeat.