Assuming you are talking waterboxer vanagon,
You'll have to remove the intake manifold,
Or at least the 'runners' or tubes on each side.

It's scary unscrewing the nuts sometimes.
If they are massively corroded, I'd be extra careful.
THE one thing you don't want to happen, is the cylinder head stud breaks off
down in the engine. ( instead of the nut unscrewing ) 
If you have leakage at a head nut, you need to deal with that of course.
On the one where I did just that - remove a nut or two, and reseal them, it
worked.  Kept the van going, and no leaking. 

It's normal for them to feel really weird as you unscrew them.....like they
don't 'get loose' quickly like a normal nut on a normal bolt - they turn a
whole turn or two with pretty firm resistance until the nut is really loose.

Also, a leak there is probably just the tip of the iceberg - like things
look at least that bad at the water gaskets where they meet the heads ......

Whatever you do, don't bust off the cylinder head studs down in the block.
You'll probably be ok, but I've gotten whole vanagons very cheap from
exactly this - busted off, down in the block, cylinder head studs. 
So be careful. 
On one engine I did , I had one nut that was really scary - I ended up
drilling down through the top of it to lube the threads in there, and then
using the heat of a torch got it off cleanly.   I have dozens of used head
nuts of course.  Maybe I was being over cautious ....but if a cyl. head stud
breaks off down in the block, it's 'all over' for that engine more or less.
It is repairable, but at great effort. 
Scott
www.turbovans.com 

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Steven Johnson
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 10:42 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Best way to access upper head bolts to fix leak

Hi all,

I've read previous posts in the archives on fixing
the upper head bolt coolant leak on the passenger
side.

Can anyone tell my the best way to access these
head bolts?  What is the minimum you have to remove
to clean the bolt so that you can remove apply the
sealing glue and re-attach and correctly torque
without messing up the head?

Thanks!

Steven
1991 Westy

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