Remove cylinder head sub assembly

I am working on replacing the head gasket in my 2010 Prius 2ZR engine. I am down to the Cylider Head Sub Assembly but cannot get it off! Has anyone done this before, can anyone give me any tips? I removed all of the head bolts, engine mount, timing cover bolts, and anything else I could find that is near the head. I can get a screwdriver gently under one corner and raise it about 1/4 inch and cannot get it to move past that. I removed the nuts from the exhaust manifold but could not get the entire assembly off, when I move the head assembly it is moving freely from the exhaust manifold. Pic is from before I removed the head bolts.

 

bisco, I do have the manual, however I could not get the exhaust manifold off. There are two bolts holding it to the cat which I cannot budge out of place. I was able to remove all nuts from the rear exhaust port on the head. Pic below shows nuts on exhaust port, the nuts I can get off, the posts they screw on to are removable but I can't get those off either.
GrGramps, timing chain and sprockets are already removed, that was an adventure in itself!


Must set chain to top dead center, orange links to those marks you see in the pic, then below the camshaft notch will line up to the 0 mark. Took about 30 minutes to get it in perfect placement, had to spin the cam shaft at least 30 revolutions to get the chain perfect.

 

I think that's the best advice, just remove the timing cover. After further inspection I believe there are two bolts that hold on the front timing guide, one in the lower block and one in the header assembly which the part I still cannot remove.

I have been trying to find how to remove the camshaft pulley, anyone know how to do that? I should be able to get the timing cover off tomorrow but that camshaft pulley is still in the way

 

Awesome, thanks for that. So how do I get the crankshaft bolt out? Is it reverse thread?

 

Got the head out! Thanks for all the tips!

I'll post more pics and a write up once it's all back together and working!

Hoping to make a timelapse video when putting it back together

 

Bunch of pics:
1. Top of pistons and exhaust manifold

2. Timing chain at front of pic, left side of vehicle

3. Very bad build up on piston 2, I believe its number 2, second from the right

4. All bad carbon build up on piston heads

5. Intake valves ok, exhaust valves have a lot of buildup probably from sucking coolant

6. All clean! New valve seals. I removed all of the valves and cleaned them up

7. Close up, so clean, so nice

 

I was able to remove the crankshaft bolt by tightening the removed ac mount bolts into the crankshaft pulley and using a breaker on the crankshaft bolt. Bolt is NOT reverse thread. Lefty loosy! Doing this put a few scrapes into the block. To me, they're scars, battle wounds, it adds character.

 

We have some nice weather to be doing this right now! I've been doing mine in the driveway.

How many miles on yours? Did you clean those piston heads, or was that how they were? Mine had a lot of bad build up.

Gypsy62, I cleaned my piston heads with carb cleaner, they came pretty clean. I'm sure aircraft aluminum cleaner would shine them up nicely. If I was doing this job on a sports car or a larger engine I would get them the cleanest I could, but this is a cheap car, I'm not going to put too much into this.