the if loctite 243 seals aswell then that should do fine on the short head bolts(as it has to seal against the coolant under pressure). the long ones u can use that, or oil.

yeh find out how much the heads were machined.. coz theres a good chance that will affect lifters..

man while you're there you could buy some yellaterra roller lifters they only about 500 bucks.. if you get the adjustable ones u wont have to worry about pushrods, but you might have to whack some dents in the rocker covers(i used mallet to hit, and back of small ball-peen hammer to make the dent) coz they may(only just) touch.

as far as the rest of it goes, its all pretty easy.. hardest bit after heads is doing the lower intake, i bought some new bolts coz there were some buggered ones that came out. from there its just a 50 peice jigsaw puzzle. not really any tricks to it.

also the heater pipe that sits on the drivers side of the lower intake will stop you from installing the rocker covers, but if u lever on the back of it (i used screwdriver) where it bolts down at the back(not where it taps into the water galleries at the front) you should be able to move it 15mm ish? to get the rocker cover on/off. before you put the upper manifold on tho, lever it back coz the upper will hit it.

i bought some generic antiseize for exhaust/intake bolts.

oh yes i think new exhaust gaskets might be the go if u havent got them already. i reused mine and im gettin exhaust leak at the extractor.

and lastly, take the heads to a porting place and get that thermactor lump in the exhaust port taken out.

oh yes for the head bolt threads get a 'thread chaser', put that thru it, THEN clean it out with air.

thanks for that, i will ask the place doing the heads how much theyve taken off and wether it will be an issue, coz i guess it depends how much they have taken off the heads. just hope its not cracked first of all! this thread would be much more interesting had this happened in a couple of months or so! just finished uni last year and starting work in albury in two weeks! (need a car to get there) had that engine held on that little bit longer, i would have been able to carry out a whole lot of nice little upgrades! sadly im still living off the bones of my a** for now so just wanna get it back together asap for as little cost as possible, but if i need bits i guess i got no option but to get them! credit card should be ready for me in a few days, that was more for moving costs tho! at least after this i will be a bit more confident playing around with the engine when i do have money to spend on it.

yeh i wasnt in that position.. so when something happened that required me removing my intake.. i took the motor out and did heads and cam aswell.

well cars all together and going again, thanks for all your help! had a bit of trouble getting it going at first - dont think it was getting fuel to the injectors so the next day it went fine first go, adjusted timing and doesnt seem to be any leaks. ive also found that using the gasket sealant (loctite 3) on the radiator hoses makes them a s**t easier to get on and helps it all seal up better too! i got a 3.5 hour drive today, so thats the real test though!