Cylinder Head Assembly: Service and Repair

1. Relieve fuel system pressure.
2. Disconnect battery ground cable, then drain cooling system.
3. Remove air cleaner assembly, intake duct and heat tube.
4. Remove drive belt, then if removing left cylinder head, proceed as follows:
a. Remove power steering pump and position aside, then remove oil fill cap.
b. Remove A/C compressor mounting bracket and position aside, if equipped.
c. Remove alternator and bracket.
5. If removing right cylinder head, proceed as follows:
a. Disconnect thermactor air control valve, if equipped.
b. Disconnect thermactor tube support bracket from rear of cylinder head, if equipped.
c. Remove accessory drive idler.
d. Remove thermactor pump pulley and thermactor pump, if equipped.
e. Remove PCV valve.
6. Remove intake manifold.
7. Remove exhaust manifolds.
8. Remove rocker arm cover attaching bolts and the cover.
9. Loosen rocker arm fulcrum attaching bolts enough to rotate rocker arm so pushrod can be removed.

NOTE: Keep pushrods in order so they can be installed in original position.

10. Remove and discard cylinder head attaching bolts.
11. Remove cylinder head.

CAUTION: Always use new cylinder head bolts to ensure leak-tight assembly. Torque retention with used bolts can vary, which may result in coolant or compression leakage at the cylinder head mating surface.

NOTE: Supercharged engines use torque to yield head bolts with large head surfaces, where as MFI engines use standard head bolts.

12. Reverse procedure to install, noting the following:
a. Lightly oil all bolts except short ones.
b. Apply suitable sealer to short cylinder head bolts.

Cylinder Head Bolt Tightening Sequence:

c. Using tightening sequence shown, torque cylinder head attaching bolts in steps as follows:
1. 50 Nm (37 ft. lbs.)
2. 60 Nm (45 ft. lbs.)
3. 70 Nm (52 ft. lbs.)
4. 80 Nm (59 ft. lbs.)

CAUTION: Do not loosen all of the bolts at the same time, only work with one bolt at a time.

5. Back off retaining bolts one at a time, 2-3 turns, and retighten as follows:
6. Long bolts, tighten to 15-25 Nm (11-18 ft. lbs.) then tighten an additional 85-95 degrees.
7. Short bolts, retighten to 10-20 Nm (7-15 ft. lbs) then tighten an additional 85-95 degrees.

13. For each valve, rotate the crankshaft until the tappet rests on the base of the camshaft lobe, install the pushrods and torque rocker arm fulcrum attaching bolts to 5 Nm (43 in. lb.).
14. Once all of the rockers are in place and temporarily torqued, torque all fulcrum arm bolts to 25-35 Nm (19-25 ft. lbs.). For this step the camshaft may be in any position.
15. Torque rocker arm cover bolts to 9-12 Nm (80-106 in. lb.). Reverse remainder of procedure.