Can they be changed out with the engine in the car? 1996 B head cobra. Please don't speculate just real experiences.

 

They can, but I damn sure wouldn't want to do it.

 

Sort of, you can not remove a few of the lower bolts with out removing the head from the car... we took the motor back out.

 

Um dude, you have to take the head off when you change the bolts anyway. You have to change the head gasket. If you didn't, then you are going to get leaks.

 

You are making the assumption that the motor has ran with the current head bolts and head gasket... Pretty safe assumption 99% of the time but not in this case.

 

Ah ok, that would make sense. Why did you need to remove the head bolts then?

 

The bolts are supposed to be replaced. You can get a headgasket kit by Ford Racing from Brothers Performance for $120, it comes with the bolts unlike most other kits that cost even more at other places. You should be able to get to all bolts for the driver side exhaust manifold, but you might as well unhook the passenger manifold to muffler when you remove the head so you can take the manifold with it. I did it when I changed my head gaskets last month.

Oh and like others are asking...why are you doing the bolts? If you have oil in your coolant, check your oil cooler. Might not actually be the gaskets...starting to think I did that job for nothing.

 

Long long story short this is a built motor that we decided to go with ARP hardware. My brother lost a few of the nuts so we put the motor in while we were waiting for the replacements. Like I said that is a very short version of the actual events that transpired.