Thought I had replied to this already! Ahh well, here's the culprit...
The block and head have faired well enough. Here's the block... There's no gouges or anything. The carbon will clean off.
I found a bad thread on the tensioner pulley bracket which holds another idler pulley so I got it heli coiled. I also asked them to clean up the particularly manky valley manifold. Nice job
There are a few marks, but they'll come off with some ally clean or Dr Magic oven cleaner
I'm doing both banks even though the right bank seems unaffected. But I've ordered composite gaskets and new head bolts. Looking for stainless bolts for the exhaust manifolds to keep the job easy....for next time
While I'm at it, see those bastarding exhaust manifold shields



can you get replacements? I've destroyed the left one because 4 bolts were rusted to the point where nothing fit them and I couldn't get into them. The right bank is fairing slightly better with only one bolt being a d
ick

I can get into it between the shock absorber and the air spring turret. But I think the rust has shrunk the head so nothing will take it off, not even my Irwin socket
How in the name of jeebus did they put them on there? I can only assume they go on when the engine is sitting on a bench!!