Thread: its time to do the head gasket .

Congratulations.
Now you can answer the questions of people who do no have "THE KNOWLEDGE".
Regards Philip A

Id like to mention a couple of things

Don't worry about marking the distributor rotor position, just make sure you have the engine on TDC No.1 before removing it! Marking the distributor body position is handy though so you can get the timing back to where it was if you don't have a timing light.

Don't get carried away with machining too much off the heads and then fitting thinner than standard head gaskets. Remember, whatever metal you machine off the heads should be taken off the intake manifold as well or there could be problems refitting it all or at worse, cause vacuum leaks later on.

If you see your cam and lifters are worn and decide to change them at this time, it might be worth considering taking the whole engine out. To do the cam you have to remove the radiator, grill, front cover and balancer etc. anyway and it's not a hard job to get the whole engine out, rip the sump off and at least chuck some new big and main bearings in. At least you will be able to work on it at 'ground' level and not have to worry about your back.

Oh, and drain the coolant before you start the job and have the radiator reconditioned. I've lost count of the amount of people I've seen that fix a head gasket but forget to fix the cause.

Cheers,

Rick