As a recap of page one, i unbolted everything from the engine to get ready to tear the block down The first step to getting inside the motor is to remove the valve cover. This is a simple process. By removing the nuts on the top of the valve cover, to get the valve cover loose use a flat head screw driver. After getting the cover off make sure to take the rubber gromits out so you don't loose them.

Once the valve cover is off the next step is to remove the timing belt , camshafts, and cam gears. To remove the timing chain you will need to unbolt the timing belt covers on the side of the engine. There is a upper, mid, and lower cover for the timing cover. Each peice is held on with approximatly 2 bolts each. The first cover you remove is the top one. The next step is removing the underdrive pulleys (crank, alternator pulleys) To remove the pulleys you will need something to hold the pulleys from turning while you put a socket on a breaker bar to get the nut loose. Also the nut on the pulleys IS NOT reverse threads. When you get the Pulleys off now you can remove the lower and middle timing belt covers. With the covers off you now have complete access to the timing belt and the timing belt tensioner bolt. Loosen this bolt about 1/2 a turn, using your hand push the tensioner away from the belt causing it to get some slack in the belt.. Now tighten the bolt back up so it stays loose. If you plan on re-using your timing belt then mark a arrow in the direction the belt is going. In my case i'm replacing it. Now it's time to remove the cam gears. Use a large screwdriver to put in the gears so you can loosen the nut without spinning the cam's. Once you slide off the gear you will notice a waldroff's spacer. Make sure to save both spacers for re-install.

With the cam gears off, it's now time to start unbolting the camshafts. Start in the center of the cam by turning each bolt about 1/4 turn to relieve the spring tension on the cams. After you get them loose you can take them off. Now pull the cams out of the head. You may need a rubber mallat to get the cam seats to break loose. Be carefull not to drop the rocker arms out of the head. As they just sit in there. Now it's time to start unbolting the head. Follow this Bolt pattern shown in the image below to loosen the bolts holding the head on.

Now that you have unbolted the head don't be in to much of a rush now. Don't just pluck those bolts out of the cylinder head. It's important that the bolts all get put back in the same pattern they came out. Get yourself a roll of masking tape and wrap a peice around each bolt then number each bolt as they are shown in the image above. Here is how the head should look when you have the bolts out. As you can see i havn't numbered my bolts yet in this image.

Ok it's now time to slide the head off of the block. If you have all the bolts removed and lift straight up on the head it should slide right off with little to no problems. But there is always a chance that the gasket may have gotten stuck. So if it does use a rubber mallat and lightly tap on the cylinder walls to try and break it loose. Once you get the head off the block be carefull not to knock out the rocker arms from the top of the head. Remeber they just sit in there! Set the head someplace safe for now. In the picture below you will notice my rocker arms have been taken out of the head. Because i'm replacing them! In your situation it might be different.

You can now see the pistons sitting in the block, inspect your cylinder walls for any damage or scrapes. If it doesn't look awfull you should be fine. Only thing i reccomend doing at this point would be to hone the cylinder walls before installing any new pistons/rings. To remove the pistons you will need to turn the engine upside down and start unbolting the oil pan. There are several bolts on the bottom of the pan that hold it on. Make sure you have already DRAINED your engine oil at this point!

I'll be updating this section frequently. The next update will include all information after removing the oil pan to removing the crank, pistons/rings. And re-installing the new ones after honing the cylinders. I also forgot to mention that i cleaned the Engine up some after the last step on page 1. Which was unbolting everything from the block. I used Engine Degreaser and Castrol Super Clean and a tooth brush to remove alot of gunk. It's still not perfectly clean but better then it was. I'll be putting it in a acid dip once i get the block all the way stripped. All i did was spray the degreaser on the engine and spray it off with my pressure washer. I wasn't worried about water entering the intakes or exhaust ports because i was stripping the motor down anyhow and could dry it out. If you wash your engine in this manner it's also a good idea to spray everything down with WD-40 to prevent any rust from forming.

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