Alright, so the latest update is this.
Went through the process of taking off the head. Taking everything off, got to taking the timing belt of an noticed a lot of play between rotating the crankshaft, and the timing belt moving the came gears
Pulled the harmonic balancer off.. So very hard to get off.. Got it off and seen some damage.
Pulled the timing gear off of the crank and the key and keyway had been smashed. Metal dust everywhere, basically there was two to three teeth of play either side of where it should sit.
Crank out..
To add way more salt to the wound, pulled the head off, to check the rest..
Valves smashed, my forged pistons were battered dints everywhere, and there was an unruly amount of play in them. All the bores scored and the 6th cylinder piston crown was blown out around the edge.
Basically. Everything that could go wrong. Went wrong. I have a sparkling head now, to go on a blown bottom end.
Oh well.. Good time for that manual conversion, anyone got a spare s2 rb25det lying around near Brisbane??