With some skill and good drill bits and right angle drills the exhaust studs
can be drilled out with the head in place. If the holes get messed up they
can also be heli-coiled.

Anytime the heads are pulled you have to be prepared to go further. If the
stud is sticking out a little it may also be possible to weld a nut on the
end to get it out. Miggy to the rescue.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Aaron
Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 12:23 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Check my head?

I just wanted to check in and see what people here would recommend. Last
week I wrote about some rusty exhaust issues and was going to replace the
exhaust while replacing a waterpump. Well, that all went fairly well. I
ended up getting all exhaust studs out - except for one. I don't think it's
drillable in the engine and would require the head to be removed (according
to the local shop). The engine has the exhaust removed, the cooling system
drained, a new waterpump on, new thermostat, etc.

So, with a head that has to come off, and an engine that has lower
compression (between 118 and 130) I wonder if this wouldn't be a great time
to just have the heads rebuilt. I'd be having a shop do it as I'm sure that
I would end up with a mess and don't have the time or experience to do it.
The quote to do both heads is $750 + labor drilling out the stud + ~$300 for
the machining of the heads + misc. parts. Is the $750 in labor an
appropriate # for just removing and replacing the heads?

I'm not really excited about spending a lot of money when the headgaskets
aren't leaking, the engine runs well - just a little tired. So, If anyone
has any opinions, ideas, or alternatives, I would love to hear what you
think.

Thanks!
Aaron