from the "how do i rip the air con out" thread

for anyone that doesnt know,
seals on my engine are ****ed, going to get head skimmed and cam reground to mild spec while replacing the gaskets.

i went to supercheap the other day and found a torque wrench for $35 but i donno if itll fit with my gf's dads sidchrome stuff.

so im hoping that repco might be able to do that for me, (ill go get a quote from em soon) but im just curious about if i should get my leaded head fixed to run unleaded (and then skimmed) or if its cheaper to get a TN head as notorius said?

if i should get the TN head, is there anything i need to look for so i dont end up getting a ****ed up head

im hoping if i do this now i wont have anything go wrong, as i need the car to head south for the easter holidays, maybe i should leave it till after?

myself, i'd buy a new head, thing to watch out for, is that you don't buy a warped one, its more work to convert a head than to replace one. there are places you can order a head, they get it in then do the work for you, so you save money and deal with only 1 person. that's my recomendation.
mechanics always seem to have trouble with deadlines, if you need something done by a set date, you may as well leave it till you have more time on your hands.

cool thanks for the advice :)

should i be looking at getting my exhaust system done before the head work, or doesnt really matter?

well, if the car runs alright, then you can mod the exhaust, however i always set a goal to fix a car b4 i mod it, specially if your giving the engine more power, coz sometimes can lead to more work for it, and thatll just make things worse later.
but its up to you.

get a new head. get it pressure tested and tested for warping etc... can do this at a repco machine shop and dosent cost too much. if u do this, u can ask for the head to be skimmed 15 thou aswell...

i wouldnt touch the exhaust just yet. do 1 thing at a time. get the head, fix that up and run the car for awhile, until u retension the head bolts and stuff about 1000km after the head gets put back on. then start looking at modding other things.