I’m wondering can you remove the heads without removing the timing chain cover and Harmonic Balance?

also truck has 144,506 miles. It is well taken care of and I do not need a hemi swap. So please don’t offer horsepower upgrades. I live in California so smog laws are a must here! I just want to fix my ride.

i noticed exhaust gases coming out of the coolant inside the radiator. Did block test and leak down test! It failed both tests. Cylinder’s 3 and 5 on left bank are culprits. Seems like mild head gasket problem?

should I do both heads or just the one bad one?
also does it need valve seats?

any information would be great?

my first over head cam motor?

how do you keep the timing chains in correct position so engine won’t jump time when putting it all back together?

 

Here is what i found in the factory service manual. Hope it helps. Personally, if I were doing this work, I would replace both sides while it was all apart.

 

just did our nitro, took a couple days because we had to send heads out to be surfaced. make sure to have heads checked incase or all that work will be wasted and continue to still leak. take plenty of pictures and document everything, make sure you have all the correct gaskets to, some don't come in the gasket package and have to be purchased separately. as for the chains make some type of wooden wedges and support the chain against the housing, our nitro had one belt for everything.

 

I would do both! and the valve seals/seats why it was open!