It's head time...

[Dave]

For the record, same applies with non-AC and AC setups - gotta take off the whole bracket, lips under the sump - bloody stupid design, that one!

PERSONALLY I'm never a fan of doing this in the car, always feel you'd have saved just as much time/effort arsing round the tight bulkhead with the engine on the piss trying to get the gasket to sit in place with only one dowel, oil dripping in your face, fighting with the sump, working upside down getting annoyed with the oil pump location... For the effort it takes to rip the entire motor out, I'd always just do it - considering that removing the engine is only another 4 or so items from what you're doing once the top left engine mount is off, if you can possibly borrow an engine stand, will make your life so much easier, you can then spin the engine round etc.

You can then do a proper clean job of it.

However - It's totally doable in the car still mind...

Gotta disagree with Ruan on this one, I personally think its 10x quicker if you're not an absolute WIZZ at knowing exactly which bolt is what size; just to point this out ruan, the extra parts to remove the block you mean are -

Jack car up, remove both front wheels
Knock out both bottom balljoints
Pull both driveshafts out
Drain gearbox oil
Disconnect ALL wiring looms,
Disconnect all additional rad hoses, 1 at back and 2 at front
Disconnect gear linkages

Not to mention the additional risk of a) leaving rad in, or b) having to remove slam panel/rad. And also needing the addition of an engine crane. I've never had an issue lining up the gasket, and the additional steps listed above defo not worth the extra time doing those to have better access.

But, a proper 'clean' job then yes, take it out