Yeah, not holding my breath. Ive been keeping an eye on ebay as there are a few but no one delivers to France. I might contact some of the companies that skim in th UK ( recommendations welcome ) to see if I can send & return mine. It might cost me a bit in postage but rather that than using a French cowboy.
Due to the weight, any postage options go out the window surely? One option though would be one of the 'pallet carriers'. One of my ex boss's is involved in the pallet carrying in this country and he often gets engines on pallets to send or deliver. You only pay for the size of the pallet unless it is oversize or overweight etc.
Being in France, you'll have euro pallets which aren't large but will hold two heads. As long as they are securely fastened to the pallet with banding tape you'll be fine.
There must be an equivalent to Pallettrak or whatever over there.
Courier companies will take anything as a parcel as long as it weighs less than 25 kilos and is less than 1m long. I've sent a complete cylinder head for a 4.2 Jaguar engine and they are bloody heavy when they have the valves and camshafts fitted. It had to be packed well and was right on the limit for both size and weight, but they took it. I use www.parcel2go.co.uk to book.
Yeah, Im pretty sure it can be sent from the UK, even if it had to be split up into 2 parcels.
Still haven't got round to the other side yet as I just spent 4 days in Tuscany and very nice it was but its bloody pissing down here in Dijon , its just relentless .
Rather nice over here riddlemethis, at the moment. Our 4 days of summer always makes me rethink my plans to sell up, buy a broken down château and sit on the terrace drinking a fresh young Beaujolais watching the sunset.
Sold the idea to the kids- just the missus to convince...
Plenty of places to buy OB, just make sure you dont use French builders but what with Brexit and the likelihood of the French NF gaining power I'd give it a few more years yet.
Oh when will it let up.
Only just managed to get the heat shield off due to rusted bolts, it wasnt easy especially as Im not on ramps and on a footpath.Basically had to pound it apart with the breaker bar.
The cylinder head bolts are even more difficult than the other side, now cant shift the top bolt nearest the cab and I have worn out my bolt grip, so will order another .
Oh dear, the famous rear head bolt, I bought a set of griptight sockets ( made by Chicago brand) to get mine off, not cheap, but have used many times since. If you get, make sure 1/2 drive, I snapped the 3/8 drive one, guy said you didn't use air gun ? No I said, just forgot to mention 2 ft torque wrench and 3 ft scaffold pole, lol. Otherwise I could post you my socket to use if it helps you out,, if you need to borrow, drop me a pm,, chris
Just realised mentioned these before, offer still stands if you need to borrow
Thanks for the offer Chris (again) :)
I will wait for my new Bolt Grip to arrive if that doesnt work then I will buy the griptight.
As you know , that particular bolt has got to be in the most awkward position both for accessibility and leveridge.
Ok, second Bolt grip still not working, The trouble is those 2 A/C pipes above the bolt are just in the way for me to wack it with a hammer.
I will try your recommendation Chris and buy the Griptites but if that fails then I guess I will buy a welder and weld on another bolt.
Received the grip-tites today and finally got the second cylinder head off after 6 weeks.
It wasnt looking hopeful as the grip-tites were doing the same as the bolt-grips, just sliding up as it turned but I managed to get a second pair of hands to help and hold it down and it eventually came unstuck.
Now to try and get a pair of recon heads delivered.
Where are you getting the heads from? Not RPi I hope......
If you get stuck with delivery, I'll be delivering a Jag down to the the south in 3 or 4 weeks time so could drop them off on the way by.
Thanks Richard.
Ive just started asking around.
This guy on ebay has a set for £300 and amazingly only £13 delivery. By looks of it on ebay £150 a side seems to be the going rate for a recon head.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390383328132?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
That's Emmotts, you'll have no problem with them, they are really good.
Thanks for the reassurance as I'm clueless who to avoid.
I swear by Emmots .... have used them on numerous occassions
Ok, Thanks. I think I will just go ahead and order.
Glad you got the final bolt out, must of been really buggered if the griptight socket was slipping off.. Your find you will use these sockets often if you got the same as me, sometimes rather than fight the crap, I just use one of them to undo bolts, cleans the crap off at the same time, lol, I'm wondering how much valve guide replacement is, I've got 2 heads that have had seats recut ect sitting in my garage, not saying that the guides need doing, just matching recon.
Thanks Chris.
They cost me £75 for the 1/2" drive set , So I am glad the flippin bolt finally gave up but it was touch n go. The bolt itself wasnt badly rounded, just the one side where it was needed most not to be in the direction of pulling force so as I pulled it would slip up.
I ordered from Emmots the pair of heads. I made an offer which they accepted for £293 which includes delivery.I just wouldnt trust getting my own heads done here in France.
Started putting it all back today, well half of it at least.
I am pleasantly surprised that so far nothing has broken.
The ARP studs went in a treat. Tightened to 80NM no problems.Glad I bought them over the stretch bolts now as I dont think it would have gone so well.The only negative with the ARP's was that not a single allen key fitted the studs, I dont know what size they are but I ended up using some other star key that did the trick.
So far have managed to put back the upper inlet manifold so not much left .
The only heart stopping moment I had was when not once but twice I dropped a nut down into the valley through the inlet manifold.
My trusty magnetic pick up tool found them otherwise the swear box would have been full.