Hi all, I'm still fairly new to the forum and hopefully will be able to eventually post some helps for some other newbies. Right now I am in the middle of a 1960 Chevy 261 engine revamp, redoing the heads due to low compression and leakage results. Below are some observations and questions I put to the forum for any insights and/or opinions as to my working assumptions... feel free to comment please. I could not find a thread that specifically addressed the 261 dismantling, but please redirect me if there is one.
So would like some advice, second viewpoint on the head and block after pulling the head. Hopefully the picture uploads will work... or else the rest of the post will be mostly meaningless :-). I'm mechanically inclined but not a mechanic by trade, a hobby mostly for getting old rides running, so all help and suggestions appreciated.
You can see from the pictures that the head definitely needs to be reworked, but the block is also a concern here. Â I was told by the previous owner that the truck had been left for a year a more and not run or even turned over... it seems there is some clogging around all the water ports/holes. Â Will do some patient cleaning around these to make sure to pull clogging out rather than dropping into the block; and then do a full circulation cleaning fluid once reassembled (any suggestions on brand/scheme would be appreciated... I plan on using Prestone radiator cleaner and run it for a short while before complete refresh and refill). Â Interestingly, when draining the antifreeze from the radiator and block it was mostly clean and see-thru green; however 99% came from the radiator and only a small amount from the actual block, which I thought was strange.
There are two (left and right) maybe 3/4 to 1 inch solid circles with what seems to be a thin brass ring around them... not sure their purpose but it looks sort of like a gunk collector... cleaned up nicely though. Be interested in knowing exactly what these are for as I haven't seen them mentioned in searching.
Top of the pistons clean off nicely, and the cylinder walls are smooth and un-scored... so I think  they are fine.Â
The head will be fully checked and redone, new valve seats, valves, etc. so should be no worries there. Â A couple of values don't look like they are seated though, which likely is why I got near zero compression on the last two cylinders and decent but low leak results on the others. Â Redo job hopefully fixes all that.
