(Thanks to EricF for providing this writeup)

Materials required:

• Head Gasket Set
• RTV high-temp gasket maker
• 5/16" or 3/8" fuel line

Materials recommended:

• New Timing Belt
• New Head Bolts (old ones are OK if they have not been re-used before)
• lots of misc. vacuum line

Tools required:

• Torque wrench (1/2" drive)
• 10 mm socket
• 12 mm socket
• 13 mm socket
• 14 mm socket
• 17 mm socket
• 30 mm socket
• 14 mm open-ended wrench
• 15 mm open ended wrench
• 17 mm open-ended wrench
• 20 mm open-ended wrench (only needed on EGR-equipped cars)
• 22 mm open-ended wrench (only needed on EGR-equipped cars)
• 1/4" and 3/8" ratchets
• 1/4" and 3/8" elbows/joints
• Misc. extensions
• T30 torx wrench

Note 1: There may be a few sizes left out; Just plan on having a whole metric socket and wrench set. You also need more torx wrenchs than listed, so have a set of those.

Note 2: It is my strong recommendation that you have the head resurfaced while it is off, especially if it is going to be a performance application. I have seen two heads have had gasket indentations in them, which could lead to premature head gasket failure. In addition, most heads that have been torqued down before are probably at least slightly bent/warped.

Steps:

1. Drive the car onto ramps, or raise it up on jack stands.
2. Start by disconnecting the negative battery terminal. Probably the first thing to do is disconnect the fuel line. If you want to be meticulous, take out the fuel pump fuse and crank the car a couple of times (with battery connected) so fuel won't go everywhere. It's a 14mm and 15mm wrench you need for the feed line, and just a hose clamp on the return line. The rubber return line will likely be all dried and caked on, plan on slicing it off and replacing it.
3. After you've gotten the fuel lines disconnected, unbolt the fuel rail (10mm) and pull it off. Also now would be a good time to un-bracket the fuel lines from the head and push them aside. Now get some extensions and an elbow, and go after the intake manifold bolts. There are the 10? bolts connecting it to the head, along with the EGR valve if your car is equipped with one, and a bracket on the underside that can be difficult to get to (12 mm?).
4. Don't forget to disconnect the intake hose and wiring from the air pump and TPS. Once you've done these things, the intake manifold should be ready to come off.
5. Now on to the backside of the engine:

   For turbo cars:
   Get that heat shield stuff out of the way if you still have it on your car. Should be 12 or 13 mm bolts holding it on IIRC.
   Before doing anything with the turbo, you'll want to drain the coolant from the front plug in the radiator... Though there will still be some left in the lines, so leave the drain pan under the turbo when you disconnect the coolant lines (on the front and back of center cartridge, 17 mm banjo bolts). I think the oil feed is also a 17 mm banjo bolt. You may want to soak all the nuts in PBlaster before trying to remove them, it will make things easier. The manifold to turbo connection will have two nuts accessible from the top, and two accessible from the bottom. They are 13 mm.
   There are 3 13 mm nuts connecting the turbo to the downpipe as well. Once you remove these, as well as all the vacuum lines and the intake piping, the turbo should be free (the return line will still be in place, but you should be able to remove the turbo without taking it off. If not, it is held on by two T25 or T30 torx bolts.

   NA guys can resume following along here:
   There are 12? nuts and washers clamping the exhaust manifold to the engine. These would benefit greatly from some PBlaster soakage before removing... Remove these, and you can take off the exhaust manifold (turbo cars), or let it fall down out of the way (NA cars). Now your exhaust side is pretty clear.

6. Now that you've drained the coolant, take out the reservoir if you can, it just gets in the way. Take off the timing belt cover, and take off the front right wheel (unless you have big rims or feel you can reach around it sufficiently). Pull the splash guard forward so you can see the crankshaft pulley. Put the 30 mm socket and a big wrench on it, and rotate it so that the cams are lined up on top. This *should* put your crankshaft at the proper position so you won't have to worry about that later.
   Now you need to take off the timing belt, and do so either by removing the tensioner (two 12 mm bolts) or by pulling the belt forward off of the cam gears. You need to take off the tensioner anyway, if you do that. Now you can start to take off the valve cover. Remove the spark plug cover if you have not already, along with the intercooler pipe above the engine if you have a turbo. You'll notice now that there are about a thousand 10 mm bolts holding the valve cover down. It would be beneficial now to remove the top engine mount (some 13 and some 15 mm bolts, as I recall). You may want to take out the airbox and turbo plumbing around there if it is in the way. Don't forget to disconnect the harness for the cam position sensor on the exhaust cam.
7. Once you remove all of the valve cover bolts, it will probably still be stuck on the head with the tension from the liquid gasket. I hammered up on it, and then got a screwdriver in between the two surfaces and pried it the rest of the way.
   Now you can take out the cams if you like.
8. The main thing left to do now, and it is a rather annoying thing, is to disconnect the hard coolant line from the back of the head (two 10 mm bolts), and it required (at least in my case) a ton of patience, and very creative ideas with extensions and elbows. Once you have this disconnected... You should be able to undo the head bolts (14 mm, and a 3/8" drive 14 mm socket will probably crack, so try to use a 1/2" drive). Use a loosening pattern going from the outside/end bolts to the inside.
9. Once you've removed those, you have successfully done all the things I can remember that are required in order to remove the head! There may be a couple other things, as it has been a month or so since I've done it. Those are the ones I remember though, and probably the most significant.
10. Now you can replace all the gaskets you can get to with the head off, take the time to run new vacuum hose with all that room in the engine bay.
11. Assembly is very much the same as disassembly. Key notes for assembly:
    • The head bolt torquing pattern is from the inside bolts to the outside ones. Cross tighten the center four, and go out, cross-tightening them (as I recall). Don't forget to torque them all to each level of torque before moving to the next. Head bolt torque specs are:
      1. 14 lb-ft
      2. 44 lb-ft
      3. 130 degrees
    • Apply a thinnish layer of high temp RTV sealant to the valve cover surface before putting it back on (make sure you wait until you've torqued the head bolts before putting the valve cover on). Make sure the surfaces are very clean (free of any oil) when you do this, I figure that will ensure an oil leak free seal.
    • Compress the tensioner... it's a long process, usually takes 5-10 minutes to fully compress to the point where you can put a pin in it to hold it in place. either in a big vise, or as I used, a valve spring compressor.
    • Make sure cam timing is perfect, and check to make sure the crankshaft is lined up properly. A great reference for this is:
      http://volvospeed.com/Repair/timingbelt.htm

Those are really the only odd things I can think of. If you got it apart, I figure you can get it back together

I'd allow two days to do this for your first time, at least. It took me longer, but that is because I was careless with my timing marks on disassembly, and messed up a couple of coolant gaskets and had some other complicating issues. I feel confident that I could do it in one day or less now, but who knows.

You can save about a grand apparently by doing this yourself... The day or two of cursing and plotting to sell the car will be worth it when you've successfully finished.