Everything is back together and she's back up and running. She is still a little noisy in the lifter department... but then again I do have used head, used lifters and my old cams that don't really want to be together. I'm in the process of moving and don't have the time to tear it all back apart and will get to it soon after the move. I'll be getting the cams from the salvage yard I bought the head (they wouldn't include them for whatever reason) as they weren't showing wear. I noticed mine are showing some wear.. better to just replace. I also have been buying all my parts locally from Sweedish Engineering and they were able to locate lifters for me at $8.30 each. I'll buy them later this week and tackle it all back in NY soon.

As for the head removal... It isn't any more difficult than any other head I've done. The head bolts are a pain in the ass and you NEED to have a deep impact quality 14mm and a long bar. As for making a special pull down tool for the top cover... all I did was to do a slow criss crossing tightening of the top cover bolts... no problems. Lining up the cams was a little of a pain and would be easier to do with the correct holding tool which I didn't have and couldn't fabricate here. *Thank you Chris Volvo for letting me talk to a service tech for advice/help!!!* (Please not the strong sarcasm here!) Their advice was to tow it in and let them put it together as they're there to make money and don't make any if they let me talk to a tech! Unbelieveable! The Haynes manual saved my ass there... the cam slots are offset and one needs to be above and the other below the seam of the top cover and the head. I was able to eyeball it and she runs decent but could use a sprocket tweak as she is a little slugish. Good enough to make it to NY though and still achieved high 20's mpg.

Tearing apart a head is do-able. Just allow yourself a weekend the first time. I started it on Wednesday and finished it early Sunday. I did have to wait 2 days for the salvage yard to pull the correct head (they pulled the wrong one first time around off an engine that crashed against the head so hard that the valves shattered the piston! ALWAYS ASK TO SEE THE ENGINE THE USED HEAD WAS REMOVED FROM!!!) I don't know why they tried to do that. It wasn't even off the engine I choose! I then had to wait another day while the machine shop had it making sure everything was in spec and put in the seals. Then about a day to get it all back together.


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'94 855 5spd 'Drew' 204,500 Miles *** Never assume that your factory timing marks are correct UNLESS you know for a fact WHO has been in there and WHAT they have done!! ASK ME HOW I KNOW!!! ***