My 83 SC snapped a few head studs last month and I was quoted $4,500 to make things right again. I thought I'd give it a shot myself even though I'd never removed an engine before - that's the kind of optimist I am. Working alone, the engine came out in 6 hours using Wayne's nice step by step guide...a helper would have been nice on the lowering part, but sometimes a man has to work alone
I stripped the engine down in about 4 more hours until the 19mm bolt on the cam shaft stopped me cold. Ronnie's.930, who lives just on the other side of the lake from me, was kind enough to loan me his P237 tool and I was able to remove the cams, rockers and cylinders in 2 hours. I decided to save the dreaded head studs for a fresh new day...today. I went to Lowes to arm myself for the battle - oxy/mapp torch, 2' leverage pipe, 10" pipe wrench. It turns out I was over prepared since all 12 dilivar studs came out without heat or leverage. I just used the little 10" pipe wrench and spun them out almost effortlessly. I guess, when it comes to head studs, it really is a lottery, but by the time I extracted the last six studs, I had it down to one per minute. I did use my grinder to flatten a half inch section of the threads so my pipe wrench could get a sure bite, but even with the grinding, the whole process took about 15 minutes.
I'm not trying to gloat over my luck or brag about my mechanical prowess (since I'm an average shade-tree mech at best)...I just wanted to share one non-nightmarish head stud experience to help balance out all the doom and gloom posts that almost scared me away from the job.
The moral of this story is that one guy with no experience and limited tools, but with Wayne's guide can remove and disassemble an SC's engine and remove the head studs...by himself. Now, if that guy can reassemble and reinstall said engine remains to be seen. I'm planning to get on that by the weekend if Pelican ships my new studs, rings, gaskets etc. by then. Wish me luck.