Aurelia engine heads

[Florent]

Hello,

I'm restoring a B20 and I'm in trouble with the heads as they are "stuck" to the crankcase, certainly because of bolts and aluminium corrosion. I've heard that it is a usual problem on Aurelia engines, is that true ?
Any advice to remove the heads would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Florent

[Norbert Dybus]

Dear Florent,

they certainly stick! It took me nearly a year to remove them without damage. I made a U-shaped puller of 10 mm steel which is fixed to the inlet an exhaust bolts and pushes on the head bolts. This and lots of manual work and citric acid finally did it. It helps to heat the head bolts extensively and twist them as far as possible. They are to be thrown away anyway.
Good luck

Norbert Dybus

[Geoffrey Goldberg]

After you throw away the head studs - where did you get your new ones? Original, or did you get some that were made up? And how is the alum left in the block once you pulled out the studs, for new studs?

Geoff

[Florent]

Hello,

We found new studs at Cavalitto's. At this time, I can't tell you how the aluminium will be when the studs will be out as we had to drill them to set the heads free and still have to remove the part that is left in the cranckcase !

Florent

[Niels Jonassen]

You will be well advised to fit Helicoils or something like it instead of relying on the threads in the engine block. The aluminium gets brittle, and I have even had a Helicoil pull out, so I had to fit a 10mm Helicoil instead of the usual 8 mm and have a stepped stud made. Please note that the studs are 8mm standard thread at the bottom and 8mm fine thread at the upper end.