How do I refurbish alloy wheels that have lost a bit of their clear and have some corrosion?
I have a set here that I have polished with fine grit wet-dry and then a metal polish, then I waxed them to try to seal them up, but they become corroded again quickly. The parts that I didn't polish also have blemishes where the clear is coming off.
If I cut them back completely and paint them with clear, will the paint stick to a polished surface? Will regular clear paint look ok, and survive the heat?

Glad you got it sorted. I was going to say make sure you use safety glasses if you use a g clamp, i have a scar on my forehead from when it slipped off and the tool popped up.

No a valve spring compressor wont work, the valves are recessed to far into the head. That method of removal requires a magnet as well, and if the collets become magnetised it becomes a real pain. just bang them out.

I could write a book on this- spent two days doing it without any special tools. Get a large spark plug socket to sit around the stem and collets and hammer it on the retainer (preferably with a cloth around the socket to stop flying collets). If the collets don't pop out you aren't hitting it hard enough, short sharp blow. Make sure the head is positioned so valve itself wont hit your bench while moving or you could bend a valve. After a little practice you should be able to do it with only one or two whacks of the hammer. Do it in a clean environment so you don't lose any collets, I doubt anyone will sell you one by itself. The order of the valves and collets in their original place is not important, you can mix and match (but not mix exhaust or inlets valves obviously)

Re-Installation is a little more difficult and requires a lot of patience, I will detail this after work if you want.

Haha thanks for the tips. yeah looking at the stock one in comparison to the one I have now, it's a wonder it worked so well, much smaller.

For the sake of closure in case someone has this problem one day:
I checked the thermostat in boiling water, it opened fine. The fans were running in the wrong direction and it was just a case of swapping positive and negative. It was impossible to tell by hand which was it was blowing, but a piece of paper made it obvious.
Thanks for the help

will changing the radiator cap help?

the oil level was a little higher than it should have been and the breathers spat a fair bit out but itt's all good now. first lot of oil i ran through after the gasket change was very milky but put in a new lot and it's good gold now.

ok, can i check a blockage by running a hose through the engine?
i bled the system twice. fans sit on engine side and pull air thru radiator towards engine.

Make sure to get a breaker switch rather than a fuse, maybe 100amp or so. I'm not sure what the current draw from a datto starter motor is but if you have a battery that is not quite up to scratch the starter will draw huge current and any inline fuse will blow.