As you all know Ive been keeping you all busy helping me with my overheating problem which I really appreciate but after weeks and weeks of agonising over the cause and changing costly parts I have decided to go with my gut instinct and strip down the engine as Ive probably spent €100 in coolant alone and have bled the system till I was blue in the face.

I have found what appears to be a very well put together detailed blog on how to do the head gasket should I get that deep in stripping it down called Paulsp38.com

http://paulp38a.com/range-rover-p38/engine-refresh/

Anything you'd like to add in making it easier or recommended parts is obviously appreciated .

Yes he is very extensive and accurate in his report.
One thing I noticed, he removed the steering intermediate shaft. That is only for RHD vehicles, lefthookers can leave it in place.
And next time I do the headsremoval I will try to leave the exhaustmanifolds attached to the head and remove them on the bench, just undo the downpipes and lift the heads plus manifold as a whole.
Saves your knuckles and is easier to torque when installing.

Leaving the manifolds attached is good but if you can't get the heatshields off, you'll have difficulty getting a socket on the lower head bolts. With the heatshields off, it's reasonably easy but getting them off is the hard part, those little bolts can put up quite a fight......

Must admit, on my last head job, I put the heat shields etc on before installing, pushed bolts through, sat heads on timber, started bolting down, replaced to slightly slimmer timber, etc etc, fed up with fighting with that r/h back manifold bolt, lol.. As Gilbert says, hardest job is the heat shields, I replaced the bolts for stainless Allen key bolts,, hopefully if I have to remove again should be easy

All true, I have only those heatshieldbolts mounted which I can easily reach (no rattle) so remove outer shield, loosen 6 hex copper studs and the innershield lowers a bit to reach lower headbolts.

Those tiny bolts are done/undone a few times so no rust is present ha ha.

Just waiting for this sodding rain to stop, its relentless.

Thanks for the tips already.

So far its going quite easy.
Taken the valley gasket off , next is to tackle the exhaust manifolds which is probably the most difficult going by what people say.

My rockers are absolutely gunged up with black sludge and some of the other hoses need replacing. The coolant hose from the bottom of the expansion tank to the throttle body just snapped off in my hand but it was one to replace luckily.

Whats the best solution here. Buy new rockers/pushrods etc or try clean it and if cleaning will work whats the best method.

1/4 drive 8mm socket and a short ratchet may work on the bolts on the heatshield, either that or a Dremel to cut the heads off. If the rockers are all black and sticky, it's been pretty well neglected in the past and you'll probably find the rest of the engine internals the same.

If it was mine, I'd drop the sump off so you can clean that out (and the oil pickup strainer) and wash everything off with diesel and a paintbrush. I used to use paraffin but diesel is cheaper, does much the same job and gives it a second use after lighting bonfires.

Ha, I thought you was going to say, if it was yours you'd set fire to it or something. I will soak them in diesel in that case but is it safe to clean the valley.

Yes, as long as the sump is off so all the crap gets washed out the bottom.

If you are undoing the manifolds with the heads still on you will need a 12mm 12 hex socket (thin wall freferably) and work your way from front to rear.

The manifold is devided into two pieces with a flex in between, undo first cyl. nrs 2 and 4, lift the frontpart a bit up to reach the bolts of cyl. 6.

Happy wrenching!

Attempted to remove the cylinder bolts and haven't even got past bolt 1 yet. It is not budging , broke a socket in the process.
Just waiting for some more penetrating spray but will buy some decent sockets in the mean time.

edit Just remembered I have a lovely impact socket set that I've never used, haha.

I use a 16mm impact socket, those are 6 sided and won't break. Have a helper to keep it exact vertical on the bolthead so you can concentrate on the breakerbar.

Rave advices to follow the torque sequence in reversed order.

Strange that both 16mm & 5/8 are not a perfect fit. My 16mm broke and after finding my nice set of impact sockets the 5/8 is a 1/2" drive but my wrenches are all 3/8 so yet another item to buy and wait for delivery from good ol Amazon along with a longer breaker bar.

Wow, I'm impressed you got them undone with a 3/8 drive, I use a 27 " breaker bar to crack them, wouldn't dream of anything but 1/2 drive, there tight for sure,, good luck with the 1 bolt that's left

Wow, I'm impressed you got them undone with a 3/8 drive, I use a 27 " breaker bar to crack them, wouldn't dream of anything but 1/2 drive, there tight for sure,, good luck with the 1 bolt that's left

I use the handle from my trolley jack slipped over the 1/2 inch ratchet handle so I've got about 5 feet to swing on. I've used a 3/8 socket and found that Halfords will honour the lifetime warranty on their Professional range of sockets when you shear the 3/8 to 1/2 adapter off.......

Chris, You saw past my ignorance in using a 3/8 as I DIDNT get past the first bolt not that I only have 1 bolt left.

Richard, Thats a long bar. Mine is only about 2ft but I have a longer one on order along with a Stahlwille 3/8 to 1/2" adaptor and a 1/2" powerdrive impact universal joint.
Ive managed to clean the rockers, they were surprisingly easy to clean.