Hi Fat Dan Here
I’m having a hard time getting the head to pop loose. I’m working a 955C 12A04040 D315 Traxcavator. I’ve looked 3, 4 times to check and see if all nuts and bolts are removed. And water pump housing is loose.

It may have had permatex used on head gasket.
Any ideas ?????? have host pulling on it now

Sucker don’t want to move.

Pry bar, wooden block, rubber sledge, dynamite...well maybe not that extreme. lol

"Rome wrote:

Pry bar, wooden block, rubber sledge, dynamite...well maybe not that extreme. lol

No no no please no. I had 289 Ford I had to beat the heads off with a sledgehammer and I finally got one off are using a 20’ thick wall pipe and the sledgehammer of course they heads were not good anymOre.

Can you put a lift bar on the 1/2"studs for the rocker shaft and try and lift or pull up on the head with a chain fall then tap with a wooden block and sledge? Have to remove rocker shaft of coarse.

Thanks fo letting me use you as a sound board. Was one of tuff ones.
I knew, I knew how to do it I just had to think back.
Then I remembered an old trick. It’s not very nice but it works every time

I’d set and watch my dad work on equipment when I was just a pup. One time in particular my dad slipped and hit his finger with a hammer. He quietly looked at me and said sometimes son you have to talk to heavy equipment like you are the devil himself. The reason, many years back, the devil would talk to equipment With such caustic and hateful words and he did it for so long the equipment begin to like it. So now sometimes, son, you have to talk to equipment like you were the devil himself. With that he picked up the closest wrench and started banging the closest part of the equipment and started yelling expletives I had never heard before within a minute the part came off.
Like I said not very nice but it works.

I had a small 20 for a while and the engine was stuck. I tried to get the head off with no luck. Heat, putty knives, hammer,etc. I finally took spark plugs and welded pipe nipples to the plugs and took a piece of channel iron and cut holes to match the modified plugs. Put the channel over the pipe nipples and put caps on (washered up to make the load even) and put an A-frame over the Cat with a come-along and almost lifted the machine off of the ground. I lifted and banged and cursed, and after it hanging there for 3 or 4 months , I gave up and sold the machine. Sometimes they just wont come undone. Grant.

"Fat wrote:

Thanks fo letting me use you as a sound board. Was one of tuff ones.
I knew, I knew how to do it I just had to think back.
Then I remembered an old trick. It’s not very nice but it works every time

I’d set and watch my dad work on equipment when I was just a pup. One time in particular my dad slipped and hit his finger with a hammer. He quietly looked at me and said sometimes son you have to talk to heavy equipment like you are the devil himself. The reason, many years back, the devil would talk to equipment With such caustic and hateful words and he did it for so long the equipment begin to like it. So now sometimes, son, you have to talk to equipment like you were the devil himself. With that he picked up the closest wrench and started banging the closest part of the equipment and started yelling expletives I had never heard before within a minute the part came off.
Like I said not very nice but it works.

Lol, good, sometimes you have to get madder than a hornet.

Probably wouldn’t work in this case, but I’ve heard of removing heads off of flathead v8 motors with studs by talking the nuts off the studs an then starting the motor. Quickly, the compression and subsequent explosions would loosen the heads enough to get them off.

Thanks everyone I've had a great time reading about other peoples problems ... make my problems seem so small in contrast ... grounds me and gives me a better perspective.
I could look like this

Nobody said this was gonna be easy but I sure am having fun.