Questions about head gasket replacement

[Avus_325is]

My buddy just bought an 86 eta which he knew had a bad head gasket, so we finally started to do it today. I hadn't seen the car running before, but he said it was pouring out white smoke and need a gasket badly. I pull off the valve cover to find that there is literally rust forming in the cylinder head, mainly along the oiling line(or whatever u call it) as well as white crystalizing stuff on some of the rocker arms which I guess from the smell is some sort of coolant byproduct. First question is what should we do about this? I assume that some kind of cleaning is in order, but what do you all suggest? We were also unable to get the manifolds unattached from the downpipe. I'm thinking that I can just drill out the holes and run a bolt through them. Would this be an ok solution?

Other than this I am well aware of procedures to pull the head since I've done it on my iS, but I can say one thing, all the extra wiring and parts in the eta do make for a royal pain in the ass.

[rs4pro3]

Take the head to a mahine shop and have it hot tanked and checked to see if it's flat. If not it will need plained which mean you'll need to pull the rockers so the machine shop can plain it.

[christophbmw]

soak your manifold/ downpipe nuts in rust rust off. wurth is the company that makes the best but im sure any brand will do. it helped me get mine off.

[DrMcDave]

i just removed my head to do a headgasket.

for the exhuast manifold, i soaked them in wd40 a couple of times, then we heated them up they came out pretty easy.

might wanna consider pressure checking the head before you pull it out.

[Avus_325is]

Yea we've decided to go ahead and have the machine pressure tested, disassembled, acid bathed(this thing is coated in goo from where the head gasket blew and the car just sat), then refurbished w/ a decked head most likely. It sounds like alot to do for an eta head, but it's only gonna run 200 total as long as no valves or guides need replaced, that on top of the 800 to buy the car isn't that bad a deal.

[E30Adam]

If you're getting the head skimmed, you might need a vernier pullet to keep the engine timed correctly as skimming the head will put your timing out!