I've always gotten them off with lots of penetrating oil ..
careful prying etc.
   I may have use heat once, but that would be last resort.
For starters I would just keep applying penetrating oil and prying
carefully on those ears and try to get the barrels moving a little.
( yet another reason not to leave heads on for decades ! )

I have also seen this ...
I was putting new Brazilian pistons and barrels on a 1.9 once..
the new barrels fit so tightly into the heads ...they were shaving metal
off the heads.
If I had forced them together ...they would have been extremely
difficult to get apart later.
I ended up lapping the barrels into the heads until I had the right fit.
That's probably not 'it' in this case, but thought I'd mention it.

Scott
www.turbovans.com

On 9/25/2012 5:43 PM, Dennis Haynes wrote:
> You're really best off pulling the sleeves. Then you can also change the
> seal rings at the base of the cylinders. It is difficult to reliably get the
> cylinders back over the pistons especially if the pistons have the three
> piece oil rings. Take the pistons out. You will need to remove the water
> pump and rear coolant pipe. Get a cylinder ridge cleaner to get the carbon
> ridge out of the top of the cylinder. With the cylinders out get some
> lapping compound and use each cylinder in the bore it will go back into to
> lap-clean up the top of the cylinder and seat area in the head. Lightly hone
> the cylinders if needed. Maybe even get new rings. The assemble, use a ring
> compressor and place the pitons into the cylinders from the top. Push
> through just enough for the pin bore to clear the recesses in the cylinder
> and put back together like it shows in the Bentley. Some really good snap
> ring pliers will make this easier and 3/8 threaed rod and some sleeves can
> be used to pull the piston pins out. With the pistons out you can also check
> the rods bearings for play.
>
> Dennis
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Jim Felder
> Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2012 7:47 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: 2.1 cylinders stuck to heads
>
> I've never had this problem before, but I know others have. I have the heads
> loose on my 2.1, but the bad news is that the cylinders are coming off with
> the heads. I can get to the little groove around the top to pry into, and on
> some the "ears" cast into the cylinder, but nothing I can do will get them
> out of heads. Is there a trick I'm overlooking, or should I just pull them
> off, compress the rings and reinstall the cylinders?
>
> It's three out of the four, by the way.
>
> Jim
>