Head/Head gasket reassembly

[Dan320is]

Tonight I am going to put the head back on my car with all new gaskets, bolts, waterpump, thermostat, cambelt & tensioner etc.

Has anyone got any handy tips or words of wisdom for when I put it back together?

[dsio]

Make sure you dont have bits left over afterwards?

[Andy_magic]

turn the engine over by hand for a couple of turns before hitting the key.

The valves on cylinder 6 will be slightly open at TDC, this is normal.

Make sure the oil return pipe from the manifold to the sump has a good seal.

[koos]

You could swing it over with the coil lead unplugged if you wanted, to get the oil pressure up, and the oil to the top. I normally put a bit of oil under the head of the bolt if its a stretch bolt when I do 16l V8's. 200nm stretch 90 and then another 90, thats tight, 8 heads aswell!! Maybe put the inlet on the head before you put it on. Thats all i can think of.
HTH

[Andy_magic]

Be careful with the HT leads, it's possible to fry the ignition coil output stage of the ECU if the coil dumps 25kv up the ECU output lead. Take it off the dizzy cap if you have to.

A better way IMO is to unplug the crank sensor or pull the fuel pump fuse to be safe.

[x-works]

If the dowel's were removed from the block and ur reuseing them make sure they aren't disfigured by trial fitting them into the head first to check they slide in(nothing worse than trying to drop the head on and it just wont sit nicely). You might want to fit the inlet manifold and thermo housing to the head before fitting the head to the block, makes it a little heavier to lift on but it's much handier to fit the manifold when when you can tilt the head on the bench. If you go this route you can use some small cable tie's to compress the spring on the crankcase breather pipe and leave it sitting in the block, then when the heads on, cut the cable ties and guide the pipe up into place in the manifold. Before the timing belt goes on if you have a battery power drill and the radiators out of the car you can put a 13mm socket into the chuck and drive the oil pump drive pulley to fully prime the engine before the key is turned. You might also want to connect the rear water pipe to the head and tighten the clip before you fit it leaving just the other end to be connected to the heater pipes when the head is dropped into place.

[E30BeemerLad]

should be some useful info in this link

seems to cover quite a few areas, have not followed any yet though

http://www.bimmerdiy.com/e30