Is it neccesary to have these specialty tools to remove the heads on a 97
4.6?

 

you dont need to use them but it makes life alot easier.

 

You will want it when put the head back and doing the timing.

 

the timing cover has to come off anyways, so no not needed.

 

You don't need the cam tools to r/r the cyl heads. Place the crankshaft keyway at 12:00 before you remove anything, such as timing chains, chain tensioners, etc. This will place all the pistons below the block deck. You can then remove the heads, replace the heads and set timing by rotating the cams ONLY. Do not move (rotate)the crank throughout the entire procedure until you have the chain tensioners back on and released. With the crank in this position you can rotate the cams to align the timing marks with the chain after aligning the crank timing gear timing marks with the chain marks first. Move the chain into postion when aligning the crank timing marks,there is no need to rotate the crank at all during this process. Then hold the chain and move it up to the cam timing gear. Now rotate the cam only to align the chain timing link with the cam gear timing mark. Double check visually that the crank chain /gear timing marks are still aligned then install the chain guide and tensioner. Release the tensioner and only then can you rotate the engine by hand. All four timing chain links and timing gear marks MUST be aligned before you release the tensioner. If any of them are not then the engine is out of time and you will bend a valve if the engine is rotated. It is really pretty simple. There is a story behind the cam retainers, I won't get into it here but it is typical big corporation bull****!

 

alright thanks for the info ill be pulling the heads tommorrow