I was removing a pair of heads from a syncro Vanagon yesterday in
preparation of installing new heads and gaskets.  The cylinders were stuck
on tight and a thought occured to me that I have never heard anyone discuss
before on the list.  You know the little metal ears on the cylinder barrels.
I normally would stick something between these and the head and bang and pry
until the heads came off.  Never hurt anything this way, however it took a
while and alot of prying to get the heads off.  Yesterday I got another
idea.  Instead of trying to break the cylinders loose by prying them away
from the heads.  Here was my idea: why not use a screw driver, put it up
against one of these tabs and hit the screwdriver head with a hammer.  Do
this on an angle so that what you are actually trying to do is to turn the
cylinder just a little.  I did this and within a hit or two the cylinder
barrel turned just a few degrees.  Then I went to the tab on the opposite
side of the barrel and tapped a few times until the barrel turned back.
Then I did this on the other cylinder.  Now that these were broken loose it
was very easy to put a screwdriver between the two tabs in the center of the
head and give it a very minor pry and the head came right off!  I tried it
on the other side and it worked great!  Anyone see any problems in doing it
this way?  Since you are hitting the tabs are you not damaging the cylinders
and you really don't have to hit them very hard to get the cylinders to
turn.  You only have to pull the cylinders out 1/2" so that you can get the
end of your flat head screwdriver in there to do this proceedure.  Normally
taking off heads that are really stuck on could take 30 mins and alot of
hitting.  This was like 5 mins for both sides.  I am happy.  I hope this
could help other folks.

Thanks,
Ken Wilford
John 3:16
http://www.vanagain.com
Phone: (856)-327-4936
Fax: (856)-327-2242