Hi All, First time on here. Just bought my first vl. Its an SL fitted with a turbo donk, 5speed, calais interior and calais front end. Picked it up cheap but found out why. It has a blown head gasket. I have bought a reco turbo head, vrs kit and head bolts but im having trouble in removing the head. I had done a search on here with no luck. Has anyone done a step by step procedure on how to remove it with pics at all? I have removed raditor, turbo pipes, and have undone all nuts, bolts and still wont budge. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers

did you do the 3 6mm bolts on corners of head. (10mm heads)

if your certain everything is undone, give the head a knock with a cold chisel to break the seal

sorry i should have been more spacific. i am having trouble removing the inlet manifold any tips

Have you got all the injectors and intake manifold (top half) off? I found when putting turbo injectors in my N/A that you had to split the intake manifold in half then get all the fuel rail n stuff out... (there are i think 3 bolts on the top and two underneath to split the manifold - be careful u don't do the underneath ones the wrong way, i ended up screwing a thread on mine) Once that's off, you should be able to see much easier and slowly work away at the injectors and all the stuff that's in there...

Ahhhh righteo that's my problem then I still have that top half attached. I'll try that and see how I go. Cheers Geniee

awesome. maybe take pics or put markings or labels on the vacuum hoses where they connect to the top plenum. Most should retain there bends and shape and be pretty easy, but i had a few from the charcoal can. i had to look at some online diagrams to work it out.

i have been reading the workshop manual under head removal no where does it state to get it to TDC. is this right?

would it really matter tho ? i mean, the valves shouldnt be hitting the pistons ... maybe if you turn it over by the crank with tools untill the cam mark lines up correctly, just to make re-assembly easier ? Ive never taken mine off, but want to in the future for a thicker head gasket and just a general clean up , maybe give it a "head-job" clean valves and new springs n retainers n stuff... Can u take some pics a long the way ? esp. with the cam stuff, coz i dont think there is a guide on cam removal / reinstall with pics. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

So I couldn't get it to tdc so I managed to pull the cam gear off and drop the timing belt and pulled the head off that way. Will it be fine to put back together again??

While the heads off, why dont you turn the crank to get the pulley marks lined up and the first piston to TDC? Then when u put head back on, you can just setup the cam gear to its markers and get the belt on with the 53 or whatever teeth apart? (btw. this is all just theory from me, i havnt actually removed my head or done any timing, its just from what ive read on here and watched videos etc.) But i think what i said was right, hopefully someone with experience can confirm.

there is a mark on the crank sprocket which will point to approx 5:00 position (you will see the two marks), the cam sprocket will point straight up. Your timing belt will have 2 marks on it and they will line up with the marks on the cam and crank sprockets. keep in mind though once you turn the engine over the cam belt marks won't line up any more. It is best to have it at top dead when you put the distributor back in so you can line the rotor button up with cylinder 1. btw you can actually leave the whole intake manifold in the car with everything attached if you undo the bolts onto the head, but either way is fine.

Leave the whole intake manifold on no need to split it. Cam timing very easy. Seeing as though you removed head without being on tdc. With head off rotate crank until crank mark lines up with mark on block. Stupidly there are no marks for cam so rotate cam sprocket with head off till it is in 12 I clock position. Keep in mind the rb30 is on a slant so 12 o clock is not straight up. Put belt on and count 53 teeth from crank to cam mark. Do not over tension the tensioner and I would replace it with a new timing belt if I was you