Its pretty straight forward to remove the manifold and cam cover, takes about half an hour. I left my throttle body attached when I removed mine but if your painting/polishing yours you might want to remove it ( 2 bolts and disconnect 2 electrical connectors )Remove cam belt cover, ( 1 bolt round the back, it just lifts straight off ) Disconnect throttle cable and tie up out the way. Remove your ICV and associated pipes ( a good opportunity to give this a clean out ) Remove all the small breather pipes ( the ones with the material like weave around them, again a good chance to replace them all, about 3 quid for 3ft worth from auto spares ) Theres a pipe about an inch in diameter goes into the back of the manifold, remove this.Remove HT leads. Now you can remove the manifold, its held on by 8 hex bolts, pretty big ones as I recall about 10 mil I think, 5 on the front and 3 on the back, Its probably a good idea to WD40 them the day before as they will be tight. Use a good quality allen key and if you need to like I did use a ring spanner for extra leverage and give it a tap with a rubber mallet, they should come off no
problem. Remove manifold. Remove spark plugs. There are 2 small bolts positioned inbetween the spark plug holes, remove these. Undo all bolts around edge of cam cover. Lift off cam cover and recover gaskets. Thats it, probably sounds more complex than it actually is, If your leaving your cover off for any length of time best off covering the block with a clean sheet or something to stop any crap getting in.
While youve got it dismantled it would be a shame not to replace all the old stuff, so bear in mind you will need : new cam cover gaskets ( mines an ABF, comes in a 2 part set) £23, new inlet manifold gasket about £5, Throttle body gasket ( i used loctite instant gasket £5 a tube, does the job sound ) new breather pipes £3, replace all the old crappy hose clips with spanking new jubilees.
A really easy job and you can get so much done while your at it. Cheers TF
