Yeah, it is terrible that someone went to so much effort and screwed up so badly. Thanks for the pics and all the helpful info.

 

actually came off quite easily with a single edged razorblade scraper and some care not to gouge things. Not like scraping a cast iron block where you have to be an idiot to **** it up.

Getting the carbon off the pistons has been a bit harder though. I have 3 done completely, need to go get some green scotch brite pads as the 00 steel wool is leaving crap everywhere. I also need to go pick up a couple more cans of chemtool as i went through a can and a half last night working on the pistons and heads. Fingers are quite sore today from last nights scrubbing.

Going to take the heads to bits tonight and drop them off at the machine shop tomorrow morning. Not bad at 45 bucks a head if you bring them in disassembled from a shop that was recommended by a friend. Have to go hit my parts place tomorrow moring and see how much the HG kit is going to run me. They get all the usual all makes, euro spares, elring and victor reinz parts when ordering anything for the rover so should be ok quality wise. Best part is they usually have it same day if you order early

 

Hope you've got some heavy duty gloves for that Chemtool. It'll dissolve the hide off a rhinoceros.

A rotary soft wire brush makes life so much easier when removing stubborn carbon.

 

Shop 3M: Imperial Roloc Discs
I use these to clean metal. Many different grits available. Can be used in anything that can chuck 1/4" shafts.

 

tried oven cleaner?

 

Forgot about oven cleaner! I've actually been using dawn power dissolver to clean up cruddy aluminum stuff for quite a while. Havent had to clean anything lately but i still have some sitting on the shelf. Good thing about it is that it's a gel so it sticks to surfaces and does its magic.

 

ive had good luck with that. make sure your garage door is open though haha

 

Don't forget new head bolts...

 

Got the heads torn down tonite, tons of carbon and junk. A couple of cylinders had the carbon break completely full of carbon so there was literally no break.. yay.. I checked the head thickness with a mike while I was there and the head with the blown gasket has never been re-faced. The other cylinder bank though has been resurfaced and can't be milled anymore as its on the limit of ok as it stands. Lets hope since the gasket didn't let go on that side all is well and happy and that side doesn't need any machining. I'm going to see if they can check it real quick before I leave to see if its junk or not. If it is junk then its off in search of a new cylinder head.

 

Went to the machine shop and one head was fine as far as clearances go, just needs to be hot tanked and resurfaced. It was a virgin head having never been touched. That's the head for cylinder bank 2 which was a 96 casting. The cylinder head for bank # 1 however is a completely different story. The head is a 94 casting so that right there says something since my truck is a 97. It had been decked before and was barely within tolerance I think something about .008" if he were to skim it again then it would put it over by around a thousandth. I also would have one head that is dam near a half a point of compression higher than the other. No bueno, so off to the breakers tomorrow with a set of micrometers so I can pull and check the head right then and there to make sure everything is kosher.