It's in rough shape, I only paid $450 for it... it needs a head gasket because it's burning and spitting coolant out the tailpipe. Should I keep the ZC and repair it, or swap it out for a B18A or something... I'm not looking to spend alot of money... are the ZC's reliable?

 

They're very reliable when treated right. There should be 10 head bolts. Pop the cam cover off, slide the belt off the cam, I just pound it off with a mallet. Take the intake mani off the head, pull the head bolts off and the head slides right off. Pull the gasket off, since it was already dead and you've been driving, it might be stuck to the head/block. Scrape off the debris and buy a new hg. Only $24.99 at Autozone. Put the head back on and retorque with new head bolts. Should be 14ftlbs, 36ftlbs, then 54ftlbs. Make sure you start on the center bolts, then work your way out in opposite directions. Put crank at TDC and make sure the lines on the cam are even with the head. Then slide belt on and replace manifold gasket and put it on. Took me about an hour to replace and retorque.

 

it's a DOHC ZC, don't you need to take the cams out to get at the head bolts in those?