Thanks for the advice and support guys, all appreciated as always. Will banish my gasket compound to the bottom of the toolbox!

You'll be the first to know when there's more news..........

Well that's the head off again! It's soooo much easier second time round, and especially when you don't spend 2 days trying to get the inlet manifold and fuel rail off and just leave it all attached.
There's moisture on the mating faces of the gasket, block and head, so looks like I hadn't got it clamped together correctly and all fluids were passing across the gasket. Done another flatness check of head and block with a steel rule and 0.0015" feeler and all seems ok.

Can anyone confirm I've got the right idea about tightening the head bolts: Last time I did them all finger tight, then went round the sequence 3 times bringing them up to the correct torque. Is this right, or should I nip them all up, then go once round in sequence taking them straight up to full torque?
I didn't re-torque after warming the engine up, so I'll hire the torque wrench for a bit longer this time and do that too.

The one problem so far, as I took one of the head bolts off and was putting it into a bag with the others, the washer slid off and fell down the mouth of the waiting downpipe!! Oh bugger! And with the engine mount off and the engine supported on a log, I can't jack her up to get the exhaust off to tip the washer out! Anyone got a well trained ferret?

Rob

As far as I know, just follow the sequence. Doing them up a little at a time should be fine - doesn't amtter how long you take. Make sure you use new stretch bolts though!!

Mark

[quote="Rob"]The one problem so far, as I took one of the head bolts off and was putting it into a bag with the others, the washer slid off and fell down the mouth of the waiting downpipe!! Oh bugger! And with the engine mount off and the engine supported on a log, I can't jack her up to get the exhaust off to tip the washer out! Anyone got a well trained ferret?

Rob[/quote]
Rob - I'd suggest you just leave the bloody thing down there and procure another washer. The only problem you are likely to have is a bit of a rattle, which you shouldn't hear over the rattle of the heat shields !!

I think I must one of the fortunate few to have non-rattling heat shields. At least now I won't feel left out becasue I can simulate the noise with my rattling washer!!!

See if u can get hold of a telescopic magnet to fish the washer out with if you are at all concerned about the stray washer, or even try make one with a small magnet and an old car ariel. I doubt it will cause any problems sitting in there and it will eventually find its way into a spot further down the system in its own time. Depending on the type of system you have it may even find its own way out the back at some point down the line.

When torquing the head down, take a marker pen and number the studs from the centre out in an alternating left to right and diagonal fashion. Torque each stud up to the lowest setting the wrench will set at, and then proceed to follow the pattern you have marked next to the stud holes with the marker pen with the 3 stages of torque settings that are stipulated, take your time to ensure that the final stage is done in the correct sequence, and check each stud twice at this stage to ensure it is correctly set. If the final stage is stipulated as a 90 degree turn (like CVH's etc) then you will probably need to take it slightly past 90 degrees to achieve the correct value 95-100 degrees est.) as the wrench, extension, socket ext. will flex slightly and absorbe some of the torque. In the past when doing this type of final torque, I always backed off the wrench to see the actual value that 90 degrees corresponded too, and rounded it up to the nearest whole value, then proceeded to torque each stud to this, as opposed to using the 90 degree guesstimate on each stud. Its not easy to judge an exact 90 degees on each and every one of the studs, far better working with a number in my opinion.

Hope that helps

Good luck