About to do a head gasket job on my 535

[kiNGMak]

Anything i should look out for and/or do at the same time??

[George M]

read everything you can find in the archives and in Bentley. Many of us have performed a top end M-30 rebuild and it is straight forward but there are many tricks along the way to making the job a success. Construct a list of all the gotchas and tape it to your hood.
I will help with starting the list and hopefully others will contribute.

Gotchas:
1. Imperative to thoroughly clean out all head bolt holes prior to installing NEW head bolts.
2. Do not bump the plastic timing chain guide when removing the head or installing it.
3. Install the two rearward cylinder head bolts with 1.5" heater hose spacing them up prior to setting the head back on the engine.
4. Use two people to re-set the head on the engine.
5. Manually rotate the crank 2 full revolutions after degreeing in the cam to make sure you have no piston/valve contact.


Thats a start...many more tricks along the way. We are here to help and this board will help immensely as it has to each one of us.

[Martin in Bellevue]

Good times there, buddy!
I put an Ireland 284 regrind cam in with my headgasket. It was actually the reason for the pre-emptive headgasket job. The machinist put new valve guides into the head & skimmed the head true.
Sorry I haven't gotten to the dyno yet for numbers, but it does seem to have something. The new eccentrics went pretty far over with this cam, but it did take a good valve adjustment. An archive search will give these points: use new head bolts, clean out the head bolt holes thoroughly (I chased the threads on everything I could find), it might be easier to leave the intake on the head (I didn't), find a torque angle meter for the final head bolt torue values, the head bolts are torqued when lightly oiled.
It seems like the days for m30 head gaskets. It is a pretty fun job, I think.

[Martin in Bellevue]

pulled the harness underneath, away from the firewall. This gave room to jack with the back head bolts & clean up the top of the block. On previous headgaskets, I didn't want to pull to much on others' cars, getting the motor back together.

King, forgot to mention to bolt the timing cover back onto the head when dropping head at the machinist. Also, don't ever rest the head on the mating surface, with the valves. You wouldn't want to bend anything.

[Hector]

don't forgot to attach the upper timing chain cover so that both get machined evenly.