3.5 v8 efi head gasket replacement

Good morning all,

recently got my hands on a much modified (lift etc) early v8 to have some fun with... it's been a good chuckle but it looks like the HG maybe giving up the ghost.. small amount of cream in the water (oddly no real water loss &/or cream in the oil)... but I'm prepping for the worst and thinking about the task of HG change...
Not having done a V8 before... even after searching the net a bit I still have some queries...
Can the HG be done with the lump in situ? Or is it a lot easier/does it need to come out?
Mines and early one so I'm guessing it will have the tin gaskets rather than the composite ones... A lot of people seem to say the later composite gaskets are better.. but the head may/may not need skimming to allow for the thickness... Does it really make that much difference in performance as from what I can tell it's a very small change in compression ratio?
And lastly.. the catch all... anything I should be aware of/worry about while taking the engine apart?

cheers Jim

You can change the HG with engine still in the vehicle. Sure, it's easier on a stand but pulling a lump to put it back just for a HG is a pointless exercise.

Don't forget you'll need new headbolts as they are a stretch bolt on the RV8. Unless, of course, you're lucky enough to have ARP studs and nuts already fitted.

When you come to refit the inlet make sure you use a new valley gasket and rubber end gaskets. You'll need to glue the rubbers in with some gasket goo.
Tip with the rocker covers: Glue one side to the rocker cover with some blue hylomar and don't use gasket goo on the other side. You'll be able to take them on and off as you please without having to renew the cork gaskets too often this way.

Thanks for the info. I'm going to run a compression test tonight see if anything is actually down... If there is no loss of compression the next thing I'll do is flush the coolant system and see if the small amount of cream reappears... it's always possible (as the trucks new to me) that someone has done the HG's recently and just not flushed the system... As it seems odd that the cream is only in the water and not in the oil/rocker covers.

cheers, Jim