i'd agree fully with irish, don't mix materials cause they do react and the stainless steel will weld itself in... didn't even look at the ad i have to confess. good job to see the heads coming off though (reading other post). definitely not good having finger tight head bolts though. i...

hi irish, its great to have the job done & thanks for all your help, couldn't have done it without it! the machine shop is T.Hobbs precision engineering in Carryduff - all of half a mile from my house! i ended up having both of the heads skimmed, where the gasket had gone (blowing...

Thanks you to all who offered advice and help - finished doing the heads earlier today, fired up first time with only a little adjustment required to the throttle cable (idling at 3000rpm is maybe a little fast) so back to loving it! and i'd say to anyone facing a head gasket job that its...

anybody got a diagram of how the belt goes on? its not on rave, or if it is, i cant bloody find it

thqanks gav, i get what you mean (didn't before) just trying it, but as daft as this sounds, the belt just isn't long enough! what the??

How the hell do you get the drive belt back on? (4.0 HSE) i haven't removed the fan, which i'd prefer not to have to, and i've loosened the 15mm nut - the tensioner doesn't move anywhere! last thing before filling with fluids and start up - driving me nuts

just make sure you have a good 16mm hex socket for the head bolts. mine were hard to shift, impact socket is strongest, definitely worth the £3.55+VAT!! my heads are going back on today

Seriously though, thanks to all for the help!!

this may be too simple jase, but gearbox fault is one of the first messages that comes up if the battery is dodgy. i'm thinking maybe the new battery isn't fully charged / not up to the job? like i say maybe thats too simple, but its worth a go!! i guess if you jump it with a second battery...

AHHHH!!! The head is off!! thank f@%$!! so i went out to the hardware store, bought a good deep 16mm impact socket and it was al plain sailing after that. now why the hell didn't i do that yesterday?!! theres a lesson in there somewhere... so i also tried attaching a photo of the...

definitely p38 hate thing at the minute

tell me about it, everything came off great. inlet manifold took longer cause i didn't want to force it. i followed the RAVE manual which doesn't say anything about removing the injectors, but irishrover put me on the right track (remove them) and take out the bolts for the gasket clamps, then...

The bolts for the exhaust manifold are 12mm bi-hex. I was shocked they came off really easy. i thought they'd be the ones that were seized to the death. The cylinder head bolts are 5/8th imperial, although i cannot get any suppliers who stock any 5/8th sockets, let alone single hex sockets...

Progress Report - Got one head off (the easy one, passenger side). it had two bolts stuck. used the supercrack - not sure what exactly it does, was told it freezes it? anyway, its off. split another socket on the drivers side bolts, apparently has a lifetime guarantee, lasted about 30...

Thanks for the help so far Irish. Much appreciated. I take it if the head gaskets had 'badly' gone the oilways, etc. would all be choked up with gunge? so far, all clean as a whistle, but then the oil & filter was all changed in november

Hi J, how'd you know?! yeah, its the two back ones on the drivers side. pain in the ass to get to, that's the big problem with them. I've also got the front upper on the drivers side, and the two lower front bolts on the passenger side. Its driving me nuts! Got down to the inlet manifold...

Anyone got any magic tricks for getting stuck head bolts out? I've got 5 in total completely stuck Either that or any tricks to get them out if they round over!

Seriously tight! using a breaker bar and a good fitting 5/8ths socket. cracked two sockets already. going now to get "Super Crack" aparently its wonder stuff, freeze the bolts and they'll fall out themselves. If that doesn't work i'll try get a different type of supercrack and just forget...

Stubborn head bolts - anyone got any tips for removing head bolts that are stuck fast? Got 15 out of 20 and the last five are being stubborn as hell!! I don't wanna ring them!

Thanks Irish, that does explain a lot!! Thankfully i didn't force it too much then! Why doesn't it say that in RAVE? even the picture shows the fuel rail still in place. Also, i love he way it just says: Remove inlet manifold assembly, when really it should say, pull and haul it at for a...