I had an old chevelle that overheated, without thinking about what I was doing I filled the radiator up with coolant before the block had a chance to cool down. Result was a cracked block. It ran fine for about a week, then started blowing white smoke (actually vaporized coolant), became hard to turn over (assuming excessive friction in #1 cylinder) and eventually wouldnt turn over at all. I knew I either had a cracked block or blown head gasket. I eventually pulled the head, here are some things I learned in that process.
When you take off the head (a realtively simple, if time consuming task), mark EVERYTHING. I mean EVERYTHING. Get yourself a roll of masking or duct tape, a sharpie, a handful of ziplock bags, some clean lint free rags, and a box or 2 of disposable vinly/nitrilite(sp) gloves and an egg carton. Mark every harness plug and its mate with tape, do the same for each and every vacuum hose, number both the male and female parts. When you reassemble you can just match the #'s (or letters, whichever) up. Dont rely on your memory, you will have too many other things to think about than wether this hose goes to this port, or to the one next to it. With modern computer screwedup ... I mean controlled engines, one insignificant hose out of place can cause headaches.
Wear the gloves. Be one with the gloves. They are disposable, use them accordingly. There is nothing worse than trying to find the baggie with the exhaust manifold bolts, only to find the label for each baggie is all covered with oil, grease and road grime. They also make going for a smoke/burger/stripper much easier. Your wife will appreciate them too, no more grease smeared door handles, or the grease spot about elbow high where you push the door closed (its these kind of little 'thoughtful' things you should do to REALLY screw with her mind).
Use the eggcarton to hold things specific to each cylinder, such as valves, rods, springs, or any other little do-dads. Mark one end of the egg carton FRONT to correspond with the front of the vehicle. Each 'set' of egg holders will correspond to one cylinder. (12 egg holders/2= 6 cylinders). When I did my truck (4.9L 6 cly) I put the headder bolts in the egg carton as well, it was reccomended to reinstall them in the same order as they were removed. Most books also suggest reinstalling the cylinder head bolts in the same place as well.
When you remove a set of nuts/bolts/screws/washers/etc from a particular unit or part, place them ALL in a ziplock back and label the bag with what is in it. An example would be your intake manifold bolts, Alternator bolts/nuts, EFI fasteners, etc, etc.
When you have the head off, take a look at the cylinder walls. I could distinctly see the cracks in my cylinder walls, that discovery saved me the time of checking the condition of the head (which ended up as a boat anchor btw).
Eventually you will take off the manifold/carb/efi, when you do, cover it up with the lint free rags. It is a ROYAL pain in the backside to get terrycloth fluff out of a carb/intake. Trust me on this.
Moral is, be anal about your disassembly. It makes putting things back together so much easier. You will know what goes where, and how many of these doohickeys go on the thingamabob. As an added bonus, you dont end up with a box of "spare" parts.
Speaking of ... I have a box of assorted 350ci spare parts, anyone interested? ;-)
I hope it goes well.
