Need advice on changing the head gaskets on my 427

[PANAVIA]

that is why we used head bolts on the last ERA we did. --studs are great but in these cars foot boxes are a bummer.

I have a feeling it is more than a head gasket. (i hope it s not).

[Dwight]

last month I spend about 5 hours removing the studs on one head of a 427 in a Unique. Double nut got all but three of the studs. I wedged the head up and used channel locks to remove two of the studs before I could get the head off.
What a pain

Pulled the motor and took it to Keith Craft, I let him remove the other head
Dwight

[RICK LAKE]

Guys in the future, there are a couple of choices for removing the studs. They make a socket that pinches the top of the stud and removes it. You can also get the bottom ones with this socket. Snap-on and Matco sell them. If you can't get the stud remover from them, you can lift the head in the car, put a 2X4 between the head and block. Get a new pair of vise grips and remove them that way. It's not pretty but works. Make sure they don't slip on the stud. If you are worried about damage to the studs, get new studs from ARP. The new ones on some applications have allen head tops for installing. I have done this twice with the motor in the car. I thought that the head gaskets where on wrong and wanted to check them. They where right. Rick L.

[PANAVIA]

Originally Posted by Dwight

last month I spend about 5 hours removing the studs on one head of a 427 in a Unique. Double nut got all but three of the studs. I wedged the head up and used channel locks to remove two of the studs before I could get the head off.
What a pain

Pulled the motor and took it to Keith Craft, I let him remove the other head
Dwight

What happened >?

[Dwight]

Keith is going to install a stroker kit and do his magic. We should end up with 482 plus cubes and 625 - 650 HP. We should get the motor back late July.

Dwight

[shelby racer]

Originally Posted by PANAVIA

that is why we used head bolts on the last ERA we did. --studs are great but in these cars foot boxes are a bummer.

I have a feeling it is more than a head gasket. (i hope it s not).

Got it all together - took it to the gas station to fill it, got back in, large cloud of steam out of the same (driver's side) side pipe. Got it home - parked it, let it cool, restarted it - coolant coming out of the side pipe. Got help from a friend getting it out. # 7 had been chamfered into he water jacket. I could re-sleeve it, but I would rather start fresh. It took more than a month to get the genesis block from the supplier and I am still waiting for the rods, crank and pistons because another supplier sent the wrong ones and then had new ones made up after they were told to wait until we had the block in our hands because too many things had been screwed up already. I am going to have a large bore short stroke hydraulic roller 490 over square fe with a second generation genesis block. I don't EVER want to have to take this motor out of my cobra. I also got a letter from dmv telling me that they were going to cancel my registration (which is an sb100) because I had not insured the car. Luckily a "statment of fact" that the car is parked and not on a public road has made it so that it is just non-op for now. Wish me luck.
John(;-)
P.S. Just to give you an idea of my car karma, my 08 shelby gt mustang got bit on the nose by a tire (>$2,000 damage) whhile this was all going on and is in the body shop.

[RICK LAKE]

John I sent you info a couple of months ago about putting a shelby block in your car. The other thing is to take that block and send it out for a sleeve job to Gessford. Both KCR and Barry R. from Survivialmotor sports have stoker kits complete crank, rods, bearing, pistons, and balance of the assembly for $2,400.00 dollars. This is a cast crank but have found out that there is a steel crank with a 4.375 stroker for $700.00 just needs final polish and finish to balance for your assembly. Rick L.