Question: Pull heads and retorque or leave alone?, Need advice from the experts! Options

[Nie Zu Alt]

Question for the group, should I pull the heads, check things out, then reinstall or leave well enough alone?

Ok, here is what I'm up to. It's time to clean this engine. Turns out the oil filter was too loose, a number of pushrod tubes leaked, and the previous owner lived 4 miles off a dirt road. All of this equals a very nasty dirty oily engine. Time to clean it up and install new seals throughout, along with a long list of other parts.

This is the state of the longblock tonight.



Testing all the head studs/nuts tonight, they are all still holding the proper torque. The engine is a 2.0 liter with stock F.I. that runs strong and has not given me any problems except running a bit hot (Gee, I wonder why?). I've started cleaning very slowly and carefully with a brush and am being very careful about where the degreaser goes. My original plan was to pull the heads and retorque after it's all clean, but figured I'd ask the experts first.