Head Gasket job thoughts...

[farley556]

I am about to do a head gasket job on my 96' 280 with 179k. I wanted to get some ideas from you guys as to what kind of smart necessary things i should to while in there. Like valve job?, what to clean?, etc. My friend is doing the job. He knows what he is doing but can i give him ANY major pointers on what NOT to do and what to do and what to watch out for? Thanks.
Like I said he knows what he is doing. So he knows about marking the timing, wiring harness, and stuff like that, but i mean specific to this engine. Thanks

[JRE320]

Valve job for sure..

[enawazh]

Dude ive been wantin to do it but im scared to tackle a hg job.. im pretty inclined ive done tons of swaps on supras and do all of my own labor(flex disk etc) but theres something about opening up a motor that scares me. so pleaasee dude if you do it can you please take detailed pictures of the vaccum lines and removing the intake maifold and the timing sections...... i would really appreciate it.

[farley556]

Yeah ill be taking pictures...but I would still like some other tips if possible. Thanks

[c280nz]

enawazh the manifolds etc arnt to hard to take off, i had myne off a couple of weeks ago and just put it back together, all the vacume lines are quite easy to line up as they are of set lengths and sizes, i think you could tackle a job like this,
tell your mechanic to be careful of your engine wiring harness (not sure if you have an updated harness or not) but still be careful,.
just label everything and take lots of pictures everywhere around the engine then when it comes time to put it back together you can look back at the pictures if your not sure about any lines etc

[V1Dreamer]

if your car has the plastick intake manifold. which i think it does. watch out for the two breather hoses underneath it located toward the center. when removing them, do not pry on the plastic. they are very britle especially with your 170k miles on it. if that snaps, youll have to buy a new manifold.
other than that, its pretty much straight forward.

i would also recomend doing a timing chain, tensioner, and rails while your there.

[emann34]

I replaced the supercharger on my 202 along with all pulleys and belts. It wasnt that bad, however, I would probably not want to do the head gasket.

[V1Dreamer]

its really not that hard. if your friend knows what hes doing, it should be a peice of cake. my avatar is a head job i did on a sl600. (v12). now that was a pain in the ass because there isnt much room to work on it.
you should be fine. its a good learning experience.