Well what a mission it was to remove the camshaft. Looking at the picture you can see how grotty the timing gear is, unfortunately when I used my gear puller on the large timing gear it cracked, broke and left a stub of metal stuck on the camshaft. Various attachments on a slide hammer failed to remove the remnant of the timing gear, but I had to get it off somehow to reach the cam plate retainer which is held on with two very shallow headed bolts. The top one I could reach with a spanner, but the surrounds of the block prevented putting a spanner on the bottom one. I ended up using a dremel and a cutoff wheel to clear away bits of the broken timing gear until I could get enough clearance to get a socket on it. Except those shallow bolts don't have enough meat to get a decent size 7/16" socket on. I headed to Repco to buy some stubby ratchet spanners but they didn't fit either (hmm more money down the drain). Eventually I got an 11mm 1/4" socket on it which released the cam. The nightmare scenario here is that the cam bearings are stuffed because it takes a special tool to get them out. Thankfully they are serviceable unlike the cam itself which is rusty and likely not useable. The "bad" engine has a good cam in it which will be going into the new block. At this stage, everything is off the block including the crank, so it's time for a hot, soapy bath for that block and the real fun can begin. I have ordered the parts but will have to wait a week or so before they turn up. In the meantime there is plenty of work to do on lapping valves and generally washing everything to get rid of all the muck.