I have sort of an interesting situation on my hands and I'm trying to figure out the quickest and cheapest way to get this done.

Basically I have two cars that both have d16z6s, I'm selling one of them, and I need to swap the heads... here's why.

Car #1 (the car I'm selling):

d16z6 with recently port and polished head with new valves/springs/guides etc. Also has ARP head studs.

Car #2 (the car I'm keeping):

d16z6 with freshly rebuilt bottom end and stock head, stock head bolts etc.

My plan:

Since I'm selling car #1 completely stock, there is no reason to give that head and ARP head studs away when I could use them in car #2 which I am keeping. I would like to swap heads and keep the port and polished head as well as the ARP head studs. But, I want to do this as cheap as possible and as quickly as possible.

Here are my questions!

1. What is the minimum amount of materials needed to swap these heads?

I'm thinking I might be able to get away with just 2 new head gaskets and that's it. Both heads are in great shape and don't need to be resurfaced or anything like that.

2. Do I have to drain the oil?

I usually drain both the coolant and oil when I change a head gasket but is draining the oil really necessary? I mean, I'll drain the coolant for sure but I'm almost certain I could get away with not changing the oil.

Thanks for the help!

 

when i did my first one i drained everything and replaced everything. the one i recently did i didnt drain oil, i just let the car sit for a few hours to let the oil get to the pan. taking the head out you have to be extra careful b/c theres still a little bit of oil in the head and will leak out from where the head studs are so i just plugged them up with paper towels. since the head was out i replaced the timing belt, water pump and headgasket and i added a new manifold so i needed the intake gasket too but if your car already has everything new i guess you can get away with just two head gaskets.

 

Sweet, that's what I wanted to hear. I figured that I could get away with it since the oil drains down to the pan anyways.

I'm thinking I'm just going to leave the intake manifolds attached to the heads and swap everything over.

I think I'm going to time myself from start to finish and see how fast I can do it in. I have pulled SOHC heads off at least 6 times before that I can think of so I should be able to rip right through it.

 

if you have metal head gaskets you can even reuse those too. I know most people in here will say you cant, but i have done it numerous times. I even reused the same head gasket like five times. Good luck.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sixty-seven point six &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">if you have metal head gaskets you can even reuse those too. I know most people in here will say you cant, but i have done it numerous times. I even reused the same head gasket like five times. Good luck.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Haha... I thought about asking that question but I've always been told to use a new gasket.

I guess it's one of those, "do it, but don't tell anyone you did it" - types of things. lol.

 

I wouldn't do it tho. If anything goes wrong like say you kink it, and don't notice, you will have to redo the head work again. It's easier and safer to not reuse it, especially if your rushing you will more then likely kink it or notch it trying to get it all apart ASAP.