[MA70-3.0GT]

Certainly, there's no point at all replacing the h/g without thoroughly cleaning both head & block, also get someone with the correct equipment to check the head for warpage as it may need skimming.

As the engine hadn't long been rebuilt before the h/g blow on mine (cause found, pinholed heater matrix, right at the top it would seem as it only leaked coolant with the front up in the air, but obviously would have drawn air in on cooldown before) there wasn't a great deal of cleanup to do & I found that carefully (can't emphasise that enough!) scraping with a scalpel blade & washing in brake cleaner got all the rubbish off fine.

Anyway I've more or less finished the reassembly by now as you may have guessed, since I found the heater issue when I bled the coolant, the damn interior's flooded & stinks of antifreeze. it soaked through the carpets & was dripping out the floor in 3 or 4 places!!!

Only bits to go back now are cosmetic bits, although I've also got to re-investigate an oil leak from the turbo feed/return which only turned up after the first test drive round the block. That ate about 1.5hrs stripping stuff out to get to retighten the nut closest to the manifold.

Hopefully this is sorted now 'cause I'm gonna scream if that lot's gotta be undone a third time. Also I've bypassed the faulty heater for now by taking the pipe from the back of the head to the vsv & routing it to the stub for the one that goes up to the other heater pipe (yes, I've made 250% sure it's not airlocked there too!)

Obviously this isn't a long-term solution as it reduces overall coolant capacity by a couple of litres nearly, but it's got the car running for shakedown & gives me the option of stripping all the damn dash out more or less at leisure... Oh and the alternator's still knackered too...

Anyway onto the good news, she started first time after cranking with the injectors & coils unhooked to spread oil round and boy does she run sweetly, even considering it wasn't too bad before it's a helluva improvement. Starting is so much easier when the cold start injector plug isn't missed out and steering at parking speeds is nicer with the speed-sensitive unit plugged in too... (Total Engine LTD have now gone under surprisingly....)
The tank's totally dry right now but when I get some spare cash either at the weekend or next tuesday I'm going to throw in a couple of gallons of super & drop the toolbox and spare batteries in the boot then take the old girl for a run to make sure all really is well & to run the aircon a bit to hopefully dry things out in the cabin.
Typically the weather's been beautiful the last few days 'cause I'm skint or I'd have been blatting round with the top off to that end, but such is life & I'm still a happy bunny considering this is the first h/g I've done on a car (plenty of bikes etc before, but you get more room to play with them!) not to mention 1st turbo engine.

All in all it's gone well & I'm (kinda) happy now I've found why the h/g blew with so little mileage on a full rebuild, kinda because it's gonna a pig to sort out properly but happy as it's not an over-decked/warped/bodged up head or block.

Coupla things I'd say to anyone thinking of doing this for the first time themself is first off don't rush, allow plenty of time & for fex sake be methodical when stripping & reassembling. I'm blessed with a near-photographic memory so I got by without but I'd recommend taking photos at each stage & even writing/sticking on notes to follow on what order to do stuff & where wires/pipes are routed (the viper's nest round & through the manifold is the bit that threw me first shot, I plugged the loom connectors in first!!!)

But mainly I'd say don't be scared off by looks, it's not half as tough as you'd think when you first stare at that lump of a motor with all it's sensors & vac systems, if you've got a bit of mechanical nouse & you're willing to spend more time than money then give it a go, if you get stuck there's a brilliant forum here to refer to, with tons of people who could no doubt do the job with their eyes shut by now.

If you need any further incentive then get a quote for the job from a garage & then consider that my total cost (including a torque wrench & 10mm allen bit, plus sundries oil, antifreeze etc) was under 100 quid...