How do you replace 350 heads?

Answer 1

Unfortunately, you can't just change the head gasket, and even if you could, it's still not a simple process. You need to remove the intake and exhaust manifolds, which involves removing all of the peripheral equipment. There will be LOTS of stuff in the way, and it all needs to be removed before you can remove the heads.

AFTER you finally get the heads, off, you need to take them to a local machine shop and have them tested. Whenever a head gasket fails it's almost ALWAYS the result of a warped head. That means the engine has overheated, usually because of lack of coolant. A warped head will never seat properly against the head gasket so you'll need to have the machine shop "resurface" the heads. While you're at it, have them check the valves and guides.

The machine shop can give you the torque specs and tell you the proper sequence for re-torquing the heads. Also, while the heads are off check the cylinders for wear. If you see any measurable amount of "ring groove", (thats a metal ridge at the top of the cylinder) it means that the cylinders are worn and you should probably take this opportunity to do a complete engine rebuild, with bored cylinders, new pistons, bearings, reconditioning the rods and verification of the crankshaft condition. There's no point in doing just a head gasket if other stuff is worn out.

Take any parts that you want cleaned with you to the machine shop and they can run them through the "cooker" while they're doing the heads (and possibly the block). You don't want to put any electronic components into the cooker, but just about everything else (bolts, pan, rocker covers...) can be cleaned up nicely.

Don't do this part-way, you'll hate it in the long run.

Answer 2

Begin by removing the valve covers. Remove the cylinder head bolts. The cylinder heads will come off. Reverse the process to install your new cylinder heads.