Thanks many times over for the tips and suggestions. They have made getting as far as I have a breeze compared to what it would have been without your help.

The "rope trick" for holding the engine still while removing the harmonic balancer bolt woked like a charm. Honestly, I doubted that it would, but WOW!

Thought better of the original timetable I had decided upon. No way it could have been done yesterday. Parts will be here tomorrow, and I plan on giving myself until NEXT Sunday if I just replace the head gasket (if the head is okay).

The way things have been going - swimmingly well - I had planned to pull the head today. Broke the exhaust nuts loose yesterday, they just came off without a fight after 5 or 6 days of soaking in PBlaster.

Regarding the right tool for removing the head bolts: Use the 1/2" drive, 6-point impact socket, not a 1/2" drive regular 6-pt. 14 mm socket. I just got 6 head bolts loose and the socket came apart with an awful screech/snapping sound on #7 (of 10). Wife is stopping at Sears on the way home tonight to pick up three more of those sockets so I can get the last 3 bolts off. They don't stock the impact sockets at our Sears.

Will take care of all the other things that are somewhat easier to get too while it is apart. Who ever said to do that in a reply last week had it right. No sense tossing it back together as a future headache waiting to happen.

Oh, yes. A big worry that I had was that the oil drooling down the block from around #2 and #3 head/intake manifold area was due to head warpage/seepage. But, the intake manifold nuts were quite loose on those two cylinders and the oil from the crankcase vent system was literally running out the bottom of the gaskets. Yuck! Still, it does not mean that the head is not warped, but is at least one less sign that it might be.

Thanks
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Scott Cook - 1991 745T, 1985 RX-7 GSL-SE, 1986 Toyota Tercel (Don't laugh, it is reliable, faithful AND gets 41 mpg!)