Thanks for your recommendations. I live in South Wales, so I fear all of the well-known shops on this forum will be out of my reach! I've been out this morning to take some close up pictures. Got both sides of each gasket, a closer look at each...

Thanks again all, your input is greatly appreciated. I'll get some better pictures in the morning, and I'll have a close look at no 8 to see if it's a crack.

Thanks for your opinions, I'm relieved to hear that. If there's any additional photos I can provide, please let me know. At this point, I have to reassemble either way. I'll take the heads to the machine shop on Monday and see what the tech...

My engine (4.0 GEMS) was rebuilt by V8 Developments. Top hats, and kept same capacity as before. All major components reused - engine had done about 90k miles. Superb job and runs like a Swiss watch. Total cost about £6k. I like the way they...

Pictures attached below. I've only had it a month, got it cheap from a no-reserve auction so I knew the risks. Has about 85k miles

Morning, Good news is that the heads are off. Bad news - the gaskets look like they're in pretty good nick to me. I was praying for an obvious blown gasket, but it seems that's not the case.

Gasket looked in good nick on the passenger side. I'm hoping to see a damaged one on the driver's side, otherwise I'll be in trouble...

Right you were. Snapped one of my sock size adapters last night. But the good news is I've got the passenger side head off, after much swearing and knuckle scraping. Now it's just the much harder driver side left. I've taken the wheel arch out...

You are learning some lesson here young jedi🙌

On the basis that you already have socket wrench, etc. get a set of imperial sockets like these from halfords...

I guess who ever had this before me decided to swap the wheel bolts, as they aren't the normal 27mm. Looks to be around 22mm - one of the only sizes I haven't got 🙃 Today's progress.. Managed to get the exhaust manifold off on the passenger...

Today's update. Slow progress, managed to get the top exhaust manifold bolts out purely just by mangling the heat shields out of the way. The tricky part now is getting the lower ones out, access from underneath is pretty impossible. My mangler...

For those heatshield bolts i just used a pair of plumbers pliers while lying under the car. Some ended up coming out, most just snapped off. Honestly i was glad if i could get them to snap because it meant less unthreading to do. Thinking about...

Silly question, but aren't the exhaust manifolds bolted to the cylinder head itself? Or do you mean they unbolted the manifolds from the lower end and pulled the lot out all at once?

Thanks for your replies. I could maybe try and hack the top ones off, but access to the bottom ones might be a bit tricky. Car is on it's arse right now, so not really any room to get underneath or under the wheel arch lining. I'll try the...

Afternoon all, I bit the bullet and decided to try my hand at getting the heads off myself. All was going very well, until... Those bast*rd exhaust heat shield bolts. 16 of them total, and only 2 have come out. The rest of them are seized and...

What's the purpose of keeping the throttle open? Apologies if a silly question. I've removed fuse 39 (Fuel Pump) so stop the engine going while I'm running the test. Just tried to remove the first plug - my ratchet wrench is comically oversized...