Well, seeing as nobody's protesting too much (not that I've seen anybody dancing in the streets, either, but...) I guess I'll go ahead and continue writing up my adventures in engine rebuilding.
A new day, and a good night's sleep, and I had some time to kill before the horses started screaming for their breakfast, so I went out and wrenched on the engine some more.
Got the rest of the bracketed-on items and/or their brackets pulled off the block, and went after lifting the head. Brackets and the toys that hung on them were kiddie-play. I coulda kept on sleeping and still gotten them off without trouble, I'm thinking.
The head was a bit more complicated - but only when considered in the light that lopping the arm off at the elbow is less complicated than stitching up the gash in it instead. 10 head bolts, all dutifully stamped with numbers to indicate which hole each one came out of, and numbers stamped next to the holes so I don't get confused when I try to put it back together, and the camshaft & rocker arm assemblies were ready to come out. But first, I had to get rid of the sprocket on the end of the camshaft, and the distributor drive gear in front of it. Not too tough. A chunk of one inch dowel and a hammer, and they came right off after I pulled the retaining nut. Wired the chain to the sprocket, and figured I was ready to go. Then came the moment of truth... Attempting to physically lift the head off the block. It was stuck...
I mean *REALLY* stuck.
As in "grab a rubber mallet and beat the everlovin' bejeezus out of it, and it still ain't moving a fraction!" stuck.
Then I happened to look down into the area where the cam sprocket is sitting. Hmmm... Odd... That looks like a bolt head down there... But it's a TINY little thing? (12mm, versus the 20-something mm head bolts that I've already pulled out) Ok, slap a 12mm socket on and pull that bolt. Look for any others. There are none to be seen. OK, *NOW* we're ready to lift the head, right? Grab on and lift. Nothing doing.
Break out the rubber mallet again, and give it another thorough drubbing. Try to lift again. Aha! That was motion! I'm sure of it!!! Lift one end while tapping with the mallet, and it becomes obvious that the head gasket is gluing everything together. Lift, tap, lift, tap, lift, tap, and finally, the whole shebang is off, with the head gasket stuck to the head, rather than remaining behind on the block. Not a problem... I wanted to be able to get a look at it anyway, due to the overheating and oil burning the car displayed on the trip up from L.A.
Guess what?
Head gasket was *SHOT*. I mean *REALLY* shot. Blown between #1 and #2 cylinders, and again between #3 and #4, and obviously had been for quite some time - there was easily a half inch gap between the remaining ends of the section that was supposed to be between #1 and #2, and almost an inch of obviously burned away material between #3 and #4. Several of the water-gallery holes in the gasket (and to a lesser extent, on the top of the block) are either filled solid with "coolant crunge", or close enough that it's doubtful there was much of any coolant flow through them. An oil gallery hole in the gasket is blocked on the block side of the gasket, and there's a clearly visible "trail" where it was pumping oil into the #3 cylinder, which is just chock fulla carbon and crud laying on top of the piston. Surprisingly, aside from the gasket being futzed, it looks as though there's very little wrong at this "depth" into the engine. Gotta get me a proper steel straightedge today so I can check for warping.
Guess that blown gasket goes a long way toward explaining the "doggy"-ness, oil consumption, and overheating it did when I drove it up from L.A., huh?
A visual and fingertip inspection of the cylinders shows amazingly little "ridge", and practically zero cylinder wall wear - the 60 degree crosshatch pattern of the final honing is quite clearly visible in all four cylinders, there is littel or no finger-detectable roughness or other ugliness in the cylinders, and apart from #3, carbon deposits on the piston tops are surprisingly light for what I'd expect of an engine with 128K miles on the clock. Haven't cleaned up the valves yet (Other than #3, where they've got "oily fur coats", there are just the typical minor carbon deposits on them - just enough to make it impossible to really tell anything until after they're cleaned) to see if there are any signs of problems there, but if the head is in as good a shape as the block seems to be, I'm stylin'.
Today, along with the straightedge, I'll be seeing about getting/ordering new bearing inserts for the camshaft when I go to work. The ones I found in it are fine, but since this is intended to be a "right from the ground up" rebuild, I'll change 'em out anyway.
Next episode: Stripping the stuff (fan, water pump, timing chain, etc) off the front of the block, and going deeper inside.
Whee... We're *REALLY* wrenching now! :)