I plan to replace head gasket. There are two reasons:

a) Loss of coolant , roughly 9-10 mm loss of level in coolant reservoir tank after 260 miles of driving and still that creamy stuff at the dipstick. If I do not drive that much then I usually top up once a month

b) Minor oil leak from headgaset (sure on this one)

I plan to do a quick job, Water pump and timing belt were replaced recently.I want to avoid removing any belt, fan etc.

As such I do not plan to get the flatness of head checked as I will have to buy another vehicle to do that and if I do that that then head gasket job will look almost unnecessary :-) , but if it is absolutely must then I will have to think again.
How important is to get this done based upon the reasons I described above?

Do you think that I need to loosen the crank bolt ? If I just put the piston 1 on TDC and just remove the T-belt then should not be I able to put the belt back as it is because crank atleast is not going to move a bit and others two (cam & Intermediate shaft) can be adjusted independently.


While removing head I do not plan to removed cam shaft also so as to able to put back every thing in short amount of time. ( I can check the valve clearance and hushers etc later on)


What do you thing of this plan ? Is it possible and benefical to do so. Essentially in short the steps will be.

1. Remove upper T belt cover.
2. Remove T- Belt. Let the belt hang loose as crank side is still all intact.
3. Remove Intake and exhaust manifolds.
4. Remove cam cover and Remove Head bolts in sequence.
5, Clean head and block as good as possible
6. Put new Gasket in
7. Replace the water pump O-ring.
8. Put every thing back together.

Regards,














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DD-1990 240 DL SW M47II FI 3.1 234 K miles