Head studs on an OBS with cab on

Okay I know it can be done on a 99-03 7.3L SD. I've done it before & know plenty others that have as well. But looking at my firewall I don't quite know if can be done even with rocking the engine on an OBS. I remember Jim Rosewood cut the firewall on his drag truck. Just wondering if anyone had done it before on an OBS & had any tricks?

Pics from Jim's site on his drag truck-



Pass side looks easy enough once you remove the heater box-

i now they did it in dieselpower mag but they used a zip tie to hold the back stud in the head when they put that head back on.it was a fairly new issue.

I assume Cat wants to do it one at a time.

I didn't have any problem doing it in mine. I think I did take the transmission cross member out so I could jack the engine up and down. (or maybe I had the whole trans out at the time for other reasons I cant remember for sure) I think I did pull the brake booster out and heater box apart. I didn't pull the box clear out though just the piece closest to the engine

I really hope it can be done, cuz I got this same project coming up very soon

Yeah it was a relitively late issue of Diesel Power they did studs with cab on, on a 97 crew cab IIRC.

You need to loosen the fan shroud, the trans xmember bolts, and the engine mounting bolts.it is doable, don't need to remove any heater box (except for the small vacuum box thing) or brake parts on the drivers side. I did a set earlier this year even the 3/8"ish longer ARP's without much issue. You have to do a good amount of jacking, off the exhaust manifolds

PowerstrokeJunkie said:

You need to loosen the fan shroud, the trans xmember bolts, and the engine mounting bolts.it is doable, don't need to remove any heater box (except for the small vacuum box thing) or brake parts on the drivers side. I did a set earlier this year even the 3/8"ish longer ARP's without much issue. You have to do a good amount of jacking, off the exhaust manifolds

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Good deal, thanks for the info

In another thread some obs guys were saying they could have the cab up in an hour. If that is the case I would def. pull cab. If I do studs in my 97 I think Im going to try it. I pull a lot of SD cabs so hopefully it wont be too bad. Cat you got a two post lift?

Glad I got me motor out for mine to do.

Tom S said:

I assume Cat wants to do it one at a time.

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You would be correct. The stock head gasket is seated nicely so there is no reason to pull the heads off & throw a new gasket in.

co04cobra said:

In another thread some obs guys were saying they could have the cab up in an hour. If that is the case I would def. pull cab. If I do studs in my 97 I think Im going to try it. I pull a lot of SD cabs so hopefully it wont be too bad. Cat you got a two post lift?

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I would love to pull the cab but I don't have access to a 2 post lift & my body bolts have seen better days & will snap if I try to turn em. So it's fight it in the frame rails or pull the engine. Don't feel like jerking a perfectly good engine so I'll fight it out inside.

Its doable Cat, this is what i used. Also if you cut the head off of the bolt it would probably make it easier. Good-luck buddy!

6-8hrs in truck 2hrs on the stand lol.
gare i took the plasma cutter and cut a 1" hole in the firewall, took like 30 seconds. plus if you keep it small you can just put a rubber body hole plug in it. i personally just left it, that was back when it was a dd. and ross is right just taking the engine side half of the heater box off works fine.

Several years ago I helped Tubzz do head studs on his 97 regular cab and we loosened the cab mount bolts and rolled the cab from side to side. We lifted the cab on the passenger side to do the bolts on the drivers side and so forth.

Chris

powerstrokenstang said:

6-8hrs in truck 2hrs on the stand lol.
gare i took the plasma cutter and cut a 1" hole in the firewall, took like 30 seconds. plus if you keep it small you can just put a rubber body hole plug in it. i personally just left it, that was back when it was a dd. and ross is right just taking the engine side half of the heater box off works fine.

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You have any pics of where you cut the hole? & thanks for the rest of the info.

ytee said:

Several years ago I helped Tubzz do head studs on his 97 regular cab and we loosened the cab mount bolts and rolled the cab from side to side. We lifted the cab on the passenger side to do the bolts on the drivers side and so forth.

Chris

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Thanks Chris, I'll consider this too.




& thanks for the replys guys, might not be as bass as I first thought.

Ill get one. Engine is out so itll be easy lol.

Perfect, it would help me out a lot. I'm not opposed to modding the firewall in the name of HP.

It seems like less work to pull the fenders and rad support and pull the motor out, rather than taking all that crap out of the engine bay and trying to work over top of the fenders. At least you will be able to properly clean up that grease pit. Why didn't you take the fenders off, its only 15 more bolts....

fatsix said:

It seems like less work to pull the fenders and rad support and pull the motor out, rather than taking all that crap out of the engine bay and trying to work over top of the fenders. At least you will be able to properly clean up that grease pit. Why didn't you take the fenders off, its only 15 more bolts....

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Have you ever pulled the fender off a MI truck?

Nope, Jersey only.