Hi everyone, if I remove the heads and rocker arms does anyone know a shop that will clean and prepare everything for me somewhere in Ventura or preferably Santa Barbara county? I’ve never done this and I’m able to remove the valve covers. I’ve done the timing chain, oil pump, front cover, water pump, ps pump, but figured it might be good to have a shop get everything right and I’ll reinstall the heads as an assembly with the rocker arms - maybe also the lifters and I’ll keep them labeled so they can be returned reconditioned or cleaned and I’ll soak them in oil before reinstalling. I’m not sure if the goop on the front side of passenger rocker cover is from a head gasket leak and/or the rocker cover gasket or valley pan gasket seals, which I’m replacing since they’re all crumbling. I’d also done the PCV mod and the separator was totally clogged so hopefully that helps with seepage too.

I didn’t replace the cam, so I can replace the lifters from what I understand. I’ve heard some say they replaced the lifters anyway, but I’ve heard more say that shouldn’t be done unless the cam is replaced. Still, it’s odd that AB supplies lifters in the head gasket kit.

A little background: this was running pretty well, but the front cover cracked fitting an oil pressure test fitting, so I went in further. It had a misfire (cylinder 5 if I remember correctly, it’s been a while) that wouldn’t go away (couldn’t smog) so I removed the oil coil packs, wires and plugs. I’ll relocate the coils to the top of the intake and use new wires and plugs. Hopefully that does it. I believe I was shown that it had low compression in one cylinder on the driver side, possibly cylinder 5 although it seemed like it was cylinder 1 - that was about 7 years ago when I was looking at it with a mechanic who mostly does mufflers and the compression was around 25 psi while other cylinders were around 100 - again that’s if I’m remembering correctly.

I’ve been told I could/should just replace the valve cover gaskets, valley pan gasket/seals, but I’m wondering if I should really just replace the head gaskets and do all that now or not. I don’t know what a shop would charge to clean and prepare everything so all I have to do is install the heads. The engine is a Bosch 4.6 in a 2003 D2 with about 150,000 miles. There was the typical ticking sound although Rotella 15W-40 probably helped and made it much quieter most of the time. I don’t know if that indicates a lifter rather than a liner.

I’d really appreciate your expertise.

As much as I’d like to swap the engine at some point, I don’t know when I’d be able to do that and that’ll be the first swap I’ve ever done, so it’s not really realistic right now especially since these deer flies and mosquitos outside are horrible and it’s too hard to swap them away every second while working. I guess it’s not that hard to remove the belt, fan, alternator, upper/lower intake (coils and wires will be on the upper intake, not back behind where it’s hard to access and remove the upper intake) and the valve covers if I decide to do the head gaskets later. I could clean it more and keep an eye on it. I’d been told it could be coolant leaking there making it look like oil when it’s mixed with dirt. It wasn’t overheating and it had power - not that great, but pretty much what I’d expect from this engine. It didn’t overheat as long as I’d had it although I’d seen the temp going up when the old thermostat blew out (replaced that multiple times - installing inline while I’m doing all this, as well as an oil pressure and coolant temp gauge, sensors and wiring are already done).