taking off the cylinder head?

How do I take off the cylinder head on an 81 xj750? All (noticeable) bolts have been removed. Are there secret screws and bolts? The torqued bolts and the ones at the bottom of the cylinder head have been removed but still no budge. I'm waiting on a service manual so I'm flying blind for the next week

 

You removed the cams, correct? There are some short alignment sleeves which can cause some sticking, especially if you are not lifting the head evenly on both ends. Use some plastic tapered shims (available at hardware stores) to gently create a gap between the fins on the head and those on the cylinder.

 

Im on the same boat as you. Heads stuck on there. Try spraying some pb blaster down the rods that you took the nuts off of. Those dowl pins might be rusted and holding on to the head

 

The 650 has a cam chain guide, does the 750 as well?

 

Yes. Other than the displacement difference it is the same engine. Rusted dowel pins is the likely culprit. Follow Bigshank's advice. You can also liberally apply a rubber mallet so long as you avoid the cooling fins.

 

I forgot, when I tore down the engine on my 700, I use a short (10") wooden dowel placed against the upper part of the exhaust port whacked them with a rubber mallet to pop the head loose. Do not use this technique against the cooling fins as Moe mentioned, and don't hit hard.

 

Same here. Dont want to wait on the manual. pretty comfortable in a garage so not to worried about get in to deep. Just never done anything this in depth on a motorcycle. So do you have to remove the cams, valves and everything?

 

You have to remove the cams unless you are going to break the chain (and break and rivet together the new one). The valves can stay in place. Be careful to loosen the cam caps slowly and equally in a criss-cross pattern to prevent damaging the cam bearings and journals. The cam gears come off first, be sure to mark them for orientation before removal.

 

In addition to taking the cams off, it can't hurt to count all the other hardware you've taken off. There should be 12 acorn nuts removed, and there are two studs in the front facing down that have 12 or 13 mm nuts on them, and then another four beneath the intake manifolds also facing down. On these beneath the intake manifolds, if they're factory hardware, the two outer ones are one size (I think 12s) and the two inner are smaller (I think 10s.) I know it sounds obvious but the fact that you said all the 'noticeable' bolts have been removed reminded me of an hour that I once spent using all the curse words I know and then recombining them to make up whole new strings of curse words in a very imaginative way.

 

So ive ran into another problem. the inside of the dowel pin between cyl. 3 &4 is completely rusted to the stud. went and talked to a guy at a diy shop and he said since i already have a jug gasket that i ahould be able to break it loose if i just pull the jugs. i've tried vice grips in a straight upward motion and used like half a can of pb blaster to try and free it up but still no luck. can anyone offer some advice on this?

 

My first choice is to clean up the dowel pin with emery cloth. Remove any nicks and distortion that you may have created by using the vice grips on it, and polish it really well so the head can go back on easily. I would also put some penetrating oil on the stud so it can soak into the rust, and then not bother with it until you absolutely need to pull the cylinders off.

 

i just took one off. it's not rusted to the stud, it's too big and the stud is too small. there's a plastic sleeve over the stud, that's what you see between them. the sleeve is stuck in the aluminum.
look at the sleeve close, it has a seam in it. pick some of the plastic out then just smash the sleeve. their like 2.50 each

 

It lokks completely filled with rust. The stud itself is pretty pitted

 

those sleeves have a seam in them, put your vice grips so the jaw is right by the seam with the seam showing,and squeeze. no matter what it is in there , it will crush, rust isn't strong. now grab it 90 degrees from the first place and twist it, it should spin then you can pull it up.
don't muck up the jugs.
if you got the head nut off, the stud is still pretty strong