I don't know guys. Pulling the head isn't quite that simple. Hoses, wires, timing belt, turbo. more to it than just taking the valve cover off and taking out the head bolts.

Then leave the intake and ehaust manifold, and turbo on the head, and just undo the wiring and hoses. Pull the radiator, since its easy to pull and will give you more room to work on the timing belt. Remove valve cover, timing belt covers, slip timing belt off the cams. Only have about 5 or 6 hoses to remove, and wiring Im not sure, on the 1.8 NA's, maybe only 7 or 8, which none of which are all that hard to get to.

I just cant see pulling the trans to fix something on he back of the head. What if you go through all of that and still dont have enough room. Plus it may end up being something a shop will have to do, and you would have to pull the head anyway.

just un bolt it and hook it up to an engine lift, the wires and hoses will come off by themselves, trust me.

does everyone run the timing belt cover gaskets? I seem to get a drop of oil on mine and they expand like crazy, getting awfully close to the alternator belt. Seems like with so many people running adjustable cam gears and cutting their valve covers for them, it would make the belt cover gaskets obsolete, true?

If your going to run the covers, why wouldnt you also run the seals on the cover? Unless they are broken or missing or something. Mine still look like new at 110k miles. I dont like having the tb exposed, too much junk to fall down in there and break a belt. Same with people that run turbos with no filter. Unless its a track only car, I cant understand that logic. I would have all kinds of cedar needles and dirt inside my engine.

if I had put the headgasket on wrong, would I have made it 400miles? I have really high oil pressure...and not sure why. I'm also ultra paranoid. I guess I just have to pull the head off and find out.

I'm going to be pissed if this car blows up on the dyno.

Just open the oil fill cap and look in there while it's running. If you see oil you are cool.

suckativity index continues to rise
 

So.... It appears as though the leak is not coming from the aforementioned nipple but in fact is seeping from between the head and the block on the back of the engine. I had the engine machined but the head came from Clearwater heads in Florida... something ain't right.... I checked the head torque and it's fine. Either something is warped or... who the fuck knows....

Found it!!!
 

Finally figured it out. Got the head off, everything is flat as a board. 1-1.5 thousand off which is great. After looking at pictures on the web for hours I noticed two protrusions that stick up out of the block where two of the head studs go in. Fucking bushings!! I looked at my reference pics and when I originally took off the head for the rebuild the bushings pulled out of the block and went with the head to the machine shop. Got the head back and no bushings and I never noticed it. Just ordered two bushings for $1.48 each from mazdaspeed along with a new head gasket. A lot of re-do work but I feel better about it now. I'm thinking those two bushings both located the head gasket and maybe seal the coolant passage.

Im also waiting on alignment dowels for my head/block. Last times I installed my head, one of them were pushed all the way into the head and wasnt doing its job. I think not having any dowels at all could cuase an issue with passages not lining up, and possibly a leak. They are there for a reason after all.

They don't appear anywhere in my mazda manual. Are they just pressed in dry or do they need retaining compound?