Everything dry.
Head gaskets - absolutely dry. No sealer whatsoever.

Make sure the surfaces are absolutely clean.

Valley gasket - dry. No sealer. Again - all has to be clean.

Bolt holes for head bolts - put long q tips down them to inspect for oil and antifreeze. Those need to be dry of excess oil and antifreeze.

The upper intake gasket - dry.

One of the hardest things - is
replacing valve cover gaskets. I kid you not.
They slip and slide all around. And the crush/stop washers try to fall on the ground or in the engine.

Getting the upper intake on
It total hell.

You need to move it around until it seats on the two hollow studs.
Took me 1/2 an hour.

Also - make sure you don't crush the brake cable or wires under the upper intake.

I had to remove it - again.
To get the plastic brake cable out. It was tangled.

You need to go slow.
Took me two weeks and I still screwed up stuff.

My truck is OK head gasket wise for the moment.
But, I have other problems still.

Like the howling noise which sounds like power steering or transmission whine.

My transmission judders upon start off the line at times.

I have bad vibrations at 68 to 75 MPH.
Oh well.

I sold my 1999 Saab last week.
Guys says it is running great at 198,000 miles.
And, the beloved Rover - Discovery II.
A vampire. Sucking money and blood from me.

The Discovery I which I have owned since 0.0 miles has been a better
partner than this used D2.

Safe to say that my D2 is not sorted out yet.
Not sure if I have the patience to keep beating my head against it.

I did get 1531 miles in it recently at 17.4 MPG. Disco I could never deliver that MPG.

Of course I listened to Savannah. He had me go 60 MPH so I would not self destruct from the vibration. I went 65 MPH.
I made it to Seattle.
The Rover sits.

With that said - cylinder heads are rather basic and direct.
You'll get them in OK.
Don't rush.
And clean, clean clean.

Good luck to you.

All the RTV and gunk I bought - I gave to a BMW guy at work. Never used ANY of it.

You don't need any for the valve cover gaskets.
I would use aviation sealer to glue the valve cover gaskets to the
valve cover.
And, --
I took my valve covers to a self car wash and put GUNK on them and got off ALL the oil first.
You can't deal with them when they are still grungy
I blogged about the heads and the valve covers elsewhere on this BB.

And, you can read about the Discovery I too.
Once the intakes are OFF, the head bolt part is the same pretty much for both.

1997 Land Rover replace catalytic converter and head gaskets

Best,
J

 

For the valve cover gaskets, I use high temp RTV around the lip of the head and just inside the groove where the v/c slips on the gasket. I also use RTV on the compression washers to help keep them from falling out if i have to take the gaskets off. I then use thread locker on the bolts and rtv just beneath the head of the bolt. Long story short my V/C gaskets dont leak.

 

I think it says somewhere to put some rtv in the 4 corners of the valley pan gasket.
I noticed mine had it so I put some back to be safe.
It was sealed good, when my HG went it puffed it up like a balloon.

 

"I think it says somewhere to put some rtv in the 4 corners of the valley pan gasket".
that is correct
a light coat of black RTV on the valve covers, unless you want to tighten them at every oil change.
a little anti sieze on the upper intake if you plan on evr reusing it in the future.
the intake should drop right in; if not look for a problem.