Hey everyone.

Basically I will be helpind my friend pull the head off his 00 Civic Si, motor in car.
We'll be trying two things we have not done before that we were wondering if anyone out there has tried, what the outcome was and if we should be aware of anything:

We will try to pull it with the IM on the head.
We want to try to see if we can change a headgasket without taking the IM off, since then it can save us a lot of time and troubles.

Also we want to know if the timing belt will get loose once it slips off the cam gears enough where we would have to basically align it back up on the block.
We were thinking just marking it with a marker on the teeth of the belt/cam gear and once it slips off the cam gears we would have someone pull up on it so that it won't sag and causing a realign.

Also since we have never aligned a timing belt and since the motor is still on the car it would be hard for us to get to.

We think the IM can be done because we have done it on a different motor. Basically all we need to do is hold it up for a min and like 4 inches high.
But the timing belt questions me.
Will it even matter that it becomes loose? Will we have to align it up with the pump marking, we can't even see from under the hood.

How do you guys when taking the head off for whatever reasons realign the timing belt?

Thanks!