If the head is aluminum, you need to get the head resurfaced before you put it back on. Aluminum warps and it's something we've always done when pulling off a head. If it's steel, they you probably won't need to resurface it, but Aluminum needs it.

Yeah, you should of drained the coolant before taking off the head. Look into a metal head gasket. Turbo Tom sells them and can withstand turbo applications with ease, nevermind regular driving. There's no way you could of ran with that much coolant in the compression chambers, that's like hydrolock levels of fluid there.

We used an impact wrench to remove the pulley, it's a piece of cake with one of those. Cam timing is easy if you know what you're doing. If you're in AZ maybe call up StreetFlight and get some pointers from them. Good luck.

2000 Rio Red I4 Cougar 200whp & 210wtq at 9psi 254whp & 276wtq with NX 35shot WRX TD04 Turbo, Cut Short Shifter, Strut Tower Bar, 17" ZN Wheels, Roush Springs, Starion Intercooler, NX 35 shot, HKS SS BOV, Full 3" exhaust,StreetFlight Chip