well, got a refurbished head with valves in it, (2.3 I-4) went to put it on and discovered i have no alignment dowls, you know-those small peices that go in the head, the head gasket fits over them to align it, and when you put the head on the head bolts go through them. theres 2 of them they go on left side of block, look like thin wall pipe but theres a split in them like a roll pin, and usually they get damaged/destroyed rmoving them. well i damaged mine by using vise grips, figured i get new ones in the gasket set, no big deal.... well when i opened up my gasket set i didnt get those parts, went to autozone and it looks like i should have, and it looks like thats the only way to get them.... so i could wait another 3 days or so.... or go with this idea i just had. since you use new head bolts when re-assembling, i have a whole set of used original bolts. i took the best 2, cut the heads offf where the socket would go, then used the grinder to make a scewdriver slot. i can just finger those in the block a few turns, put on gasket then head, then regular bolts in a few holes before backing out my "alignment studs" with a scewdriver. havent done any more than make those pins, but i dont see why it wouldnt work......

 

At one time long long ago, I had a set of alignment studs, they were threaded to screw into the block, had left hand thread in top so a threaded (LH) rod could be used to remove them. You could take a couple of head bolts to a machineshop, and have them cut short, and drilled & threaded LH also a threaded rod (s) to remove them.