Hello All:

Great advice, everyone. I managed to get the head pulled last night. I am happy to say that the head and manifold gaskets looked great (I know I should replace the head gasket, but do I need to replace the manifold gasket?) the cylinder walls look fantastic, and the pistons themselves look solid, though blackened. All ports and everything else look solid.

A few months ago someone posted here to remove the rocker assembly and run a straightedge along the top of the valve stems to determine if there was a receding valve problem. I did that last night and Virginia failed miserably. So tell me, what should the valves look like? The intake valves are black with a rough surface, the exhaust valves are clearly burnt and white, particularly for cylinder #3 and less so but noticeably for cylinder #1. #s 3 and 1 are also clearly receding into the head.

Perhaps someone can give me a few tips:

1) Exhaust manifold nuts - I had a heck of a time removing the second nut from the front on the lower "tier". This is located almost directly below the intake for cylinder 2, and behind the alternator. It took me nearly two hours of fotzing to get it off - getting it on will cause me to lose sleep. Any hints?

2) When I reassemble all of this, what is the proper way to treat the surfaces? Should I use steel wool to get the smudge off the mating surfaces?

Once again, thanks to all of you for the help. I had a very satisfying experience doing this, one of the best feelings of accomplishment ever. I cannot imagine how I will feel if I actually get it put back together properly.

Cheers,

Jeff Pucillo