Here's where I'm at. I pulled the head. Have a head gasket kit from ECS. I'm trying to decide what else I should do while the heads out and what tools I need. I did the timing belt, water pump, tensioner 10k miles ago so I'm skipping that. Is it safe to re-use timing belt tensioner if I compress piston in a vice and out a pin through it? The motor overheated so I'm getting the head resurfaced, which means it's coming completely apart. I'm up in the air about the cct gaskets because the cars a winter car with 160k miles that breaks down once a month. Plus they're easy enough to do with the head on the car if and when they do fail.

Plan so far: I bought a valve spring compressor. I don't think I need the cct tool since the heads off and I'm pulling both cams (pretty sure I can just pull the cams with chain and tensioner still attached) . Correct me if I'm wrong. I unbolted the turbo from manifold to pull the head so I'll be replacing that gasket, both manifold gaskets, head gasket, valve stem seals, cam seal. So far I've decided not to do cct or gaskets for that. If it does stretch or leak, I'll do it then. We're talking about a $1500 car here.
My concerns:
1: Pulling cam gear for timing belt: Do I need a tool or do you just hold the cam with a wrench so it doesn't move?
2: Head made some noise before this. It was either a valve or lifter hard to pinpoint location. Just like a tap tap tap... Tap tap tap... Tap tap tap. I think it was like a sticking valve. Made the same noise for 25k miles (whole time I've owned the car). Anything I should look for? The machine shop is resurfacing and cleaning out head. Maybe it just wasn't getting enough oil due to sludge?

I have experience with 4g63 motors but not any with this AEB. Any things to look out for are appreciated. I find it strange to have a timing chain and a timing belt... Why not just put a second cam gear on the other cam and time it all with the belt? German engineering.

 

No love?

 

Yes, you should be fine reusing the tensioner so long as you compress it very slowly.

Why wouldn't you replace the CCT gasket? It's a $5 gasket and you will already have the head stripped (or at least the cams removed.) Would you really reuse the old gasket? That's pinching pennies where they shouldn't be pinched.

I don't know offhand whether the cams have flats to put a wrench on them like the 4g63 does (and the only reason I know the 4g63 does is from watching jafromobile's channel.) When I removed the exhaust cam gear I used the proper tool that spans the slots on the inside of the gear to hold it, you could easily make up a tool like this.

Can't help you with the tapping sound, though now is the time to fix it.

 

Thank you. I guess you're right I might as well do those gaskets. Now I see there is no notch for a wrench on the cam. These German cars man, money money money. "We will put a timing belt and timing chain so more things can fail. That way more money. We will put a cam that needs a special tool to remove, so we can make more money."