Cylinder Head Replacement

Hello again. I'm back with more maintenance questions. I am replacing the cylinder head on my 2002 Silverwing and am following the Honda service manual. I am at the "Remove the cylinder head" step, but it feels like the manual isn't providing enough detail for that and also skipped a few steps leading up to that. So my questions are:

1) Should I disconnect the throttle body inlet pipes before or after I take the cylinder head off? The manual didn't mention the inlet pipes at all, and as far as I can tell, they aren't attached to any other hard part.

2) Does the hinge(?) bolt at the bottom of the cylinder head need to be removed first or should I leave it connected while breaking the cylinder head loose?

3) How does one actually "remove the cylinder head"? Tap it with a mallet/hammer? Give it a good whack with a hammer? Is there a pry point I can stick something like a breaker bar?

Thank you in advance for all of the help. I can attach pictures as needed for clarity and I apologize if I've used the wrong terminology.

The manual looks to be written from the perspective of firstly removing the engine from the chassis, then removing the head from the engine. I've watched plenty of YT engine disassembly videos but have never done this myself (cam removal/shims/clutch packs are as far in as I've ever delved into my bikes).

I take it that you are doing the work with the engine in place, in which case you will need to remove the airbox and throttle bodies from the air inlets, but unless there is a frame tube clearance issue then the inlets could remain in place. You will definitely have to remove the engine mounts that pass through the head before attempting to loosen the head otherwise it can't move.

Once the head bolts are removed, only the head gasket should be holding parts together, and that should not require much force to shift. There are dowel pins locating the head to the cylinders so any tapping with a mallet needs to be directed up away from the crankshaft. There's a couple of rectangular block protrusions at the back (above the cam tensioner) and front (below the head studs) that looks like decent prying points. Good luck.

I'm definitely doing the work with the engine in place. I've remove the (very) long bolt from the engine mount and cylinder head. Is there anything else in/on the mount holding the head in place? Or just friction now that the bolt is out?

The head is now moving a bit and I can see a bit of the head gasket when I tug on it. It looks like the head is still stuck to the engine mount down by the gas tank.

I found the culprits. There were a couple of inserts between the head and the mount. I've pulled those out so they aren't in the way anymore. I also found that there's a big hose coming down from the bottom of the head, which I assume is the coolant return.

*Edit: Not the coolant return. They're metal pipes that I now think are going to the muffler/exhaust.

I've finally got the head off. Next is moving the valve springs over to the new head. Do I need a valve spring compressor or can I make do with non-specialty tools?

Also, how do I remove the exhaust joint bolts from the old head? One was loose enough to pull by hand, but the others are pretty stuck.

By exhaust joint bolts do you mean the exhaust studs? I would suggest locking two nuts together on a stud to enable you to turn it with a spanner.

To get the valve collets out you will need to compress the spring somehow; a big g-clamp would work but you may need to modify the end so you can extract the collets.

Yes, the exhaust studs. I'll see if I have any nuts that fit to give that a try.

I found a valve spring compressor for about US $30, so I'll use that when it arrives.

I was able to pull the exhaust studs and the valve spring compressor I bought worked fine. Everything has finally been moved over to the new cylinder head. Unfortunately one of the bolts for the intake pipes snapped when I was putting it back together. Now I need to figure out how to drill out and/or extract an 8mm bolt. The work continues.