Lots of inter-dependent things all happened together today. The headgasket and bolts arrived so I could put the head back on, and the sump came back from powdercoating so I can put that back on too.
New gasket:
Head back on
Cams back in now. Bank 1's cams are easy as they're not opening any valves so they can both go in together easily. Bank 2 is much harder as the exhaust and inlet cams are both partially opening valves and they want to escape in different directions.
To counter that, I put the exhaust cam in first, in a position where it's not trying to open anything.
You can see how it's a bit forward of where it should be...
...especially when the timing bar is attached. This is where it will jump to if the bar is removed without a belt fitted.
Pulled it back with the bar and attached it to the other side
This put the notch in the right place so I could time the two cams together
15 chain rollers to the notch on the other cam
This is the gasket for the tensioner - you can see the raised section which provides the seal around the oil feed to the tensioner
Inlet cam in place. Once the two cams are timed properly with the chain, I'll let the exhaust cam pull forward again by 45 degrees which also puts the inlet cam in a position where it's not trying to rotate and so makes it much easier to clamp down
Cams fully fitted and all the caps torqued down
New exhaust gasket
Manifold and cam cover back on and this side is done too.
Now the heads are on I can flip the engine over and prime the oil system. I poured fresh oil straight in to the oil pump pickup and spun it by hand until the oil filter housing started filling up.
New filter and more oil pumped through almost to the 'top' and then put the cover back on. This will minimise the amount of time the engine has to spin before getting oil pressure back in to all the cam and crank journals from which I've allowed the slime to escape. The cams are all sitting on assembly lube, but even so I don't want to have to push a litre of oil in to the pump and filter before it gets to the cams.
Sump baffle and pump pickup back in place, and silicone sealant on the sump flange
Freshly powdercoated sump back on
This will sit overnight so the silicone can cure, then I can flip it over in the morning and carry on. Yes, the oil will drop out of the pump pickup tube when its turned back over, but there is now oil on the filter side of the pump so the pump will prime very quickly when needed.