@sut123 I got the head off today, as suspected all 6 exhaust valves are bent, stuck open actually. A used head that I purchased off eBay arrived today also, looks like it’s in pretty good shape. It came of a slightly newer LR4 with about 10K less miles that mine has and the header looks slightly different at the flange so I will probably put mine on it. Current thinking is that I will take this new to me head to the machine shop to have it looked at to see what it needs. Once it has a clean bill of health going to try and put this all back together again and get her running. When looking at the pistons and cylinder walls they all appear to be fine to me, no dings or dents that I can see on the pistons and the cylinder walls are not glazed or anything that I can tell. I took a couple photos and was hoping you would give an opinion on them as well. I really don’t know what these are supposed to look like at 70K miles. Let me know what you think and again thanks for the help here.

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Nice job man! Looks like you are making some solid progress. The cylinder walls looks fine, I would run it for sure. Id just make sure you take your time with removing the gasket mateial from the block deck. You dont seem to have to much material left over on the block which is a blessing. Do a little research on removing gasket material from aluminum blocks and you will be good to go. One other thing I would do is to make sure the impact points on the piston face where the pistons hit the valves did not leave any "sharp" points. Sharp points can heat up under load and cause the fuel to ignite. Doesnt look bad but worth mentioning. Pack rags around the piston edge and vacuum out any materials you used to sand those down. Protect those cylinder walls! Also, since you are spending the money and doing it the right way here I would order aluminum coolant crossover and water pump fittings. The plastic coolant tubes are flimsy and will fail at some point and these engines don't do well with overheating. EuroAmp is where I ordered mine but there are plenty of vendors. You are headed the right direction, good work my man! Keep posting, it helps others as well. Good luck!!

 

Well I ended up getting new valves (intake and exhaust), guides and stem seals and the original head was rebuilt. I got it all back together and pushed the button and it runs! Really appreciate the support from the forum, it bolstered confidence for sure and of course pointed out some potential problem areas. In the end I did replace all the plastic coolant parts with metal versions, new gaskets everywhere, new water pump, belts... I even opted to put 6 new fuel injectors in since I would have had to rebuild the originals anyway. Happy Holidays to everyone!

 

Right on Ted, congrats! Glad to hear she's breathing fire again. Best of luck and Happy Holidays to you as well!