Hi guys - got a couple of hours of clio time in today(pics below):
- lol yeh you noticed my £35 Halfords spray can paint job. One day I have promised her a proper paint job, but gunna haev to sell a few more car parts until I afford that :smile: - also, now I have a clio, I have mentioned it so several of my Nissan customers, and yes, many have had or still have clios, so I agree Darren.
- cleaned up the 3 faces of the head that accept gaskets. I tried several things but the best was the rough side of washing up sponges and a mixture of brake cleaner and white spirit. Takes ages and is boring. But I guess these are pretty critical faces so I best put the time now to avoid blows or oil leaks.
- cleaned up the top mating face of the head. It was covered in streaks of hardened black sealant. The only method I could find to get it off was a Dremel with a wire brush bit. Surface is nice and smooth now.
- Also regards the upper face and the cam cover. Yes there is some damage. To get the cam cover off was a real nightmare, I really don't think you can do it by hitting it off. In the end I jammed a sharpened chisel in various areas and hammered it in. It worked but it damaged the sealing faces of the head and the cam cover. I have shown an example below. My solution was to manually and carefully hand file it down, then polish it with dremel and wire brush bit. The key I think was to make sure that no parts of the damage were sitting proud of the main surface level, it they sat shy a little bit I think that will be ok because the sealant will hopefully take up the slack. Fingers crossed. I'll do the cam cover tomrrow.