Good day all!!

And the outcome for today! Lots of pictures, so please don't shoot me!!

First and foremost, I cleaned the operating room!! And arranged all my tools for easy access...



Off comes the cam shafts...



I actually have this one upside down so you can see the engraving... It says RA3... That is R=right side in relation to facing the motor (not like if you were sitting in the car). A=Auslauf (German for outlet). And 3 is the third cap from the front... There is also RE1... E=Einlass (German for inlet).

Additionally, the caps that have the oil line holders like this one are very hard to get turning... So, don't think there is something wrong if they take more force to get moving...



This is the Driver Side (DS)... The exhaust cam bolt was terribly loose for some reason... I didn't think to check the timing prior to pulling it apart cause I figured the noise I heard was from the bottom end... It was not the bottom end...



And the cams are out... The exhaust manifolds are off... Motor mounts are off... Valley pan is off... All bolts back where they came from... Valley pan bolts were terribly nasty so I left them off...







And where the parts are going... I had labeled them R and L, but that is prior to figuring out they don't correspond to the right and left of the car...



This is where I put the lifter and rocker for each position... With the help of my better half, we labeled these RE12, RE23, RE32, RE34, RE43, RE45, RE54, and RE5-...... I will explain it if anyone needs me to... I did that for all four rows (RE, RA, LE, and LA)....



Don't forget these bolts when pulling the heads... The head will NOT come off if these are still in place... Really!! I tried...





Here is the first viewing with the gasket in place... First the PS or left, then the DS or right...













And a close up of the concerns!! I'll post some older pictures that reveal the timing was indeed off, I just didn't notice it at the time!







Here are the older pictures of the timing... They aren't the best, but I think you will be able to make out the position of the flats on the cams... First the PS that is in time, then the DS that is off... Not sure by how much by looking at the picture, but they are NOT in time...





Here is the damaged head... Only valves at this point... I hope that is the extent of the damage as these valves didn't hit hard enough to damage the piston...





The other head is fine...





Here is the block under the gaskets... No cracks!!





And here is the crazy water gasket that always fails... This looks worse than just normal failure... Not sure how it got like this... Reused?!







And finally, the bottom... Don't get stressed if you encounter some oil pan bolts that take time to come out... only five or six of mine were an issue, but that's cause they had some blue lock-tight stuff on them...



I put the oil pump bolts back where they came from...





So, that is where I stopped... The real question is do I tear it down more?! All the caps seem to be tight and the crank turns effortlessly with no pinging of any kind... The impressions on the top of the pistons are hardly noticeable and the valves that are bent are barely bent... I personally think I can get away with keeping the bottom end as is and rebuilding the heads... Replace all gaskets and call it good...

Your thoughts please!!!

Cheers!!