I'm in the middle of changing the head gaskets on my 95 Disco. The amount of crap I found after removing the inlet manifold and the general state of the engine means I would like to give it a decent clean. The pics show the problems. I've removed the heads and cam followers etc but don't want to take the cam out if I can avoid it. What is the best way to clean the mees up?

Also what can I use to do the rocker covers, which paint would be suitable?

On a car of that age I would recommend a cam replacement as you have not removed the sump I would leave well alone as you will only push the crap in the engine and cause problems further on
What debry has built up is perfectly normal
I would whip a follower out and check the condition of the cam

I put new h/gaskets/cam and followers on my serpent belt V8.
It's not too bad a job and I was told you can remove the front cover without dropping the sump but you do end up breaking the seal of the sump gasket so I decided to drop the sump too which wasn't too bad.
I also found loads of carbon build up so with the sump removed cleaned it all up with many tins of carb cleaner including the inside of the rocker covers, it's a bit tedious but worth it.

I've covered about 1500 miles since the rebuild and the engine oil is still pretty clean but I did also put some flush through before I started to strip it.
It runs a lot better with a cam replacement and it was pretty worn, but above all it's nice to have a smooth running leak free clean engine at 135000 m.

I was going to say it doesn't look to bad to me. I've seen a very much worse build up of gunk etc on some engines. I use baby wipes (no - not kidding) to clean stuff up. Don't know what is in them but they do a grand job on oil etc and don't leave cotton everywhere.