Disassembly:

I'll refer you to the Haynes manual for information on cylinder head removal, in-situ.  Once the cylinder head has been removed from the vehicle, place it on a sturdy bench and begin disassembly.  Here is my cylinder head, as removed, with 178k miles worth of opening and closing valves.  Notice the amount of varnish and carbon found in the recesses of this head! 

Exhaust side:

Intake Side:

Combustion Chambers and Gasket Surface:

Disassembly of the cylinder head should progress as follows:  external sensors and plugs should be removed, followed by the camshafts, hydraulic lifters, valve springs and finally valves.  The cylinder head houses a coolant temperature sensor and coolant plug on the driver-side; these should be removed first. 

Once the exterior is bare, the camshafts should be removed.  There are five bearing caps per camshaft.  Carefully loosen each cap, in stages, until the camshaft is free.  Lift the camshaft from the head and sit aside.  Use a magnetic pickup tool to remove the lifters and keep them numbered, with their respective camshaft and cam lobe.  You'll want to install the bearing caps and lifters back into their original locations. 

The following pictures are the camshafts, lifters and bearing caps removed.  Each lifter was marked with a Sharpee to ensure it is installed in it's proper position. 

To remove the valves, the springs must be compressed.  Once the springs are compressed, the valve keepers can be removed and then the spring, spring seats and valve can be removed.  I used a Craftsman universal C-type compressor ($19.99 at Sears) and fastened an adapter. 

The adapter was made from a piece of 1" steel conduit.  The conduit was cut to ~3" length and wrapped with electrical tape to protect the bores.  A taper was ground into the inside of one end to ensure a proper centering on the spring. 

With the spring compressed, the keepers were removed using a magnetic pickup tool. 

During disassembly, it was noted that the #3 rear exhaust valve had an excessive amount of carbon on it and the port was caked with oil.  Obviously, the valve seal in this cylinder had failed:

Cleaning:

Each component of the disassembled cylinder head should be thoroughly cleaned and restored before reassembly.  To clean the cams, lifters and valve spring components, I used Castrol Degreaser and a steel brush.  To clean the casting, I used high-pressure hot water and blasted away the grime.  I then scrubbed the casting with Castrol Degreaser and finished with Carburetor Cleaner in the intake ports.  This is the cylinder head after this initial cleaning:

The bearing caps and their bolts were scrubbed with a steel brush and Castrol Degreaser:

The intake and exhaust valves were glazed and required additional "elbow grease" to clean.  I began cleaning each by soaking it in degreaser.  I then removed the glazing using a wire cup brush mounted in my 4.5" angle grinder.  The valve was brushed until all dirt was removed.  Each valve face and stem was then polished to ensure proper airflow.  Here are the before and after shots of the exhaust valves and intake valves, respectively:

Exhaust Valves:

Intake Valves:

The #3 rear exhaust valve showed "whiskers" indicating that it's valve seal was indeed leaking; this is the valve as removed:

And the same valve, after a thorough cleaning:

All 16 valves were cleaned and polished in like fashion.  All corresponding valve springs, keepers and valve spring seats were cleaned by soaking them in degreaser and scrubbing them clean with a steel brush. 

Machine Work:

After all parts are cleaned and inspected, the gasket surface showed evidence of pitting, so I took it to AMS and had the head gasket surface milled.  They measured the cylinder head for warp and found it 0.004" out of spec.  0.006" of total material was removed to flatten and clean the gasket surface.  Additionally, although my valves sealed, I was not 100% comfortable with their condition, so I had the machine shop check them out while they were working on the gasket surface.  The valves did show some uneven wear, although they sealed properly, so I had them reground. 

To clean the remaining gasket surfaces, the exhaust manifold studs were removed using a double-nut method and the surfaces were block sanded with 220 grit sandpaper. 

Here's the head after it's final cleanup, ready for new valve seals and reassembly:

Gasket surface and combustion chambers:

Cylinder head interior:

Intake manifold gasket surface:

Exhaust manifold gasket surface:

Reground valve seats:

And reground valve surfaces:

With all cylinder head components clean and to spec, the cylinder head can be assembled.  I began by installing the new valve seals.  I used Loctite 454 to adhere the valve seals to the valve guides and lubricated them with Lubriplate 105. 

The valves were lubricated with camshaft assembly lube, slid into place and compressed.  I had to modify my adapter to allow for access to the keeps.  To fit the keeps, I applied a coat of Lubriplate 105 to each keeper and slid them into place with a pair of long forceps.  This is the cylinder head, with all valve hardware installed:

To recondition the lifters, I pumped all of the original oil out of them, washed them thoroughly, and then reoiled them.  If you flip the lifter over, you will see where it contacts the valve stem; this is actually a small pump.  Using the magnetic pickup tool, you can slide this pump up and down and all of the oil will be dispelled.  Once the oil is out, fill the lifter with degreaser and then rinse with water.  To ensure the lifter is flawlessly clean, repeat with mineral spirits and then pump full of new oil. 

Slide each lifter into it's bore and then install the camshaft.  Wash all cam lobes and bearing surfaces with lacquer thinner, coat with camshaft assembly lube and install the bearing caps.  NOTE:  the black bolt has an oil passage milled into it.  This black bolt must be installed on the inner side of the bearing cap.  Ensure that the timing marks are aligned and torque each cap, in stages, to 11 ft-lbs. 

That's it; you should now have a beautiful cylinder head, ready for installation!

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