Posted by Mr. Coffey on November 12, 2001 at 16:35:41:
Thanks to everybody who provides this board with support & wisdom of these great cars.
I finished the head replacement on my '79 last weekend and probably would not have even tried it, had it not been for this website. Imagine the pleasant surprise when I turned the key for the first time in a long time and heard this fine machine fire up and purr like a kitten!
I did manage to break my upper timing chain cover in the process, so that will need to be replaced before I can use the car regularly, but at least I know the job is done and the car runs beautifully. All this and I didn't even have to adjust the timing yet!
For anybody attempting this job in the future, I highly recommend simply disconnecting any hoses & wires from the head & intake and removing the whole thing as one piece and do the disassembly / rebuild on a workbench. I believe this method saved me A LOT of time and aggravation.
Thanks for all the help! And now that it runs, I'm sure I will be having more questions about other things as the E12 again becomes my daily driver, so stay tuned!!