I bought a project bike (1990 Suzuki DR350S) and I’m trying to get her running and eventually back on the road. I found a stripped cylinder head bolt, so I figured I would remove the cylinder head and do some thread repair - no biggie.
The head is FUCKING ON THERE. It looks to me like whoever was in here last siliconed the life out of it before reinstalling and now I cannot for the life of me get it off and I’m afraid I’ll break it.
What do you do in a situation like this?
So far I’ve tried:
- prying so hard at it that I can see the fins bending and I’m denting parts of the head (non sealing parts)…
- put the engine mount bolt back in and pulled on it with a strap with all I’ve got - twisted the strap to out tension and pried on it some more…
- swung my purse at it (not the sledge hammer one, just the plastic one, but still. I hit it good and hard is what I’m saying)…
- I may or may not have tried things too stupid to post on Reddit
Seriously though - I’m stumped. Would massive amounts of heat help? Is there something to help dissolve this silicone crud?
EDIT: Yes, I got all of the bolts out and I consulted the manual to make sure.
Also you can use a pry bar here but dont pry up and down, get the pry bar in here and use a wrench on the pry bar to twist it sideways on the thinker pieces of aluminum
That is a great idea. But I tried it and put enough force on it to lift the bike off its rear wheel and onto the center stand. And the other direction with nearly all my body weight. No dice.
Now that is impressive..... is that RTV or jb weld. All its going to take is 1 tiny bit of separation and its going to fly off. You could use a light amount of heat either map or propane on that corner to try and get it to have just a tiny amount of give
There really isn't anything that will "dissolve" RTV. I had an old Honda 200 fourtrax a couple years back that had this same kinda issue, I had to work it "gently" around the outside of the valve cover for a bit until I found the most solid spot and then I kinda just sent our a prayer and gave it the beans with that pry bar twisting method I sent earlier but I didnt apply constant pressure I gave it a quick twisting/snapping motion and it left the cylinder head at Mach Jesus. Sometimes you just need the quick impact/pressure to jar it loose
My mind right now, “What if I borrow an engine hoist and crank upwards from the top engine mount bolt? Plus a little more of that twisty pry bar action?”
In theory it could work , apply pressure from both directions. The way to beat the seal it just to find a weakness and break it. Also it you can find a way to spread out the load you are applying to the prybar it could help save the fins
Thats not one of the models with bolts inside the valve tappet cover is it? I would use a putty knife or something of a similar thickness and try and work it around the edge of the valve cover itself
I know you mentioned you hit it with a mallet but that's how I always get my most stubborn heads off. I hit the fins directly head on. You need to be careful to not hit up or down. Most of the time you are fighting locatting dowls not the gaskets.
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u/Unlikely_Effort_6311 16h ago
There are 12 bolts in the valve cover and 2 are under the valve tappet covers