Crossing the country in a stock Model A: Day 13: How many dudes does it take to fix a head gasket...

Well apparently it takes 2 Californians and 3 Texans to pull a head off of a Model A! We spent a good few hours working on pulling the head, trying our best not to damage anything. We pried, we lifted on the head with an engine lift, we beat with a rubber mallet, we even fed rope into the plug holes and cranked the engine so the piston would hit the balled up rope against the head. The rope trick actually worked wonderfully, it really popped the head up. There was a lot of rust built up around the studs so it took a long time to persuade the head to loosen up, but we finally got it free. There weren't really any signs of blown gasket, so it's assumed at this point it's either the rings or valve guides. The valves looked fine, didn't look or feel burnt, and seemed to be seating fine, and the cylinder looked fine so no signs of a broken ring. None of the other cylinders dropped in compression so it seems unlikely that number four would have dropped from 60's to 30's on the drive, but I suppose anything can happen. I was told it may be the valve guides, making the valves seat just off enough to drop the compression down, even though we couldn't see any difference from the other valves. We got to meet another fella in the Angelo A's club, an 84 year old man named Leroy Palmer. He drives his Model A from around 3,000 to 5,000 miles every year, by himself with a pull behind trailer to camp in, what an inspiration! So it was me, Lane, Scott, Roger and Leroy all putting our heads together to try and get this head off and figured out. Model A's are so great, in the fact that they bring so many good folks together, it was really great to spend time with Model A'ers and talk shop all day long and watch the carb cleaner evaporate. After an amazing meal Jan made and a good cleaning of the engine and head, we got the new gasket on there and fired the car up. Eventually after re-torqueing the head bolts the car got its pep back and started running on all four cylinders again. It's amazing what a fresh gasket will do, it was definitely time for one! Thanks so much to you wonderful folks in San Angelo, you took great care of us!