brokenhead, thats the plan, but the two most highly recommended local shops that everyone remembers are now closed up. I haven't had any auto machine work done in decades, so this is a jouney in itself
I did a simple test on the head and have a couple questions for those in the know. I don't know if its conclusive or not:
I striped the head of everything except the valves and springs, I left them as they were.
I then proped the head up, upside down, to where the combustion chambers were facing up and somewhat level, installed the old plugs then I filled each combustion chamber up w/gasoline to where both valves were submerged in gas. Even tho the intakes are not totally submerged, there was just enough gas to completely cover them.
The results I got is that the bad cylinders, those w/low to very low compression, started draining gas just about immediately down around the valves & seats and out through the valve stems. The 3 cyl's that had the highest compression readings took longer to start leaking but they all eventually drained. All the exhaust valves drained sooner than the intakes.
I know that compression helps to seal the valves when the piston is on the upstroke so I'm unsure my test is acurate but non-the-less, it gives me some confidense that my compression problems lay w/the head and valves as opposed to the piston & rings.
Especially since my bad reading cylinders started leaking gas just about immediately and the Better reading cyl's took much longer before they leaked down.
questions:
1) should I mark and remove the valves for further inspection or leave them be for the machine shop?
I'm leaning on removing them and keeping them stored so I can identify which came from their particular cyl.
2) depending upon the valves and springs condition, should I consider regrinding surfacing them or plan on replacing them?
3) There is a slight covering of surface rust in 3 cyl's. The engine spins over easily and theres no unusual sounds, clunks, pings etc when I spin it w/the head removed.
Should I just plan on the rust being worn off by running the engine or is there a "mechanics trick" to shineing those cylinders w/pistons in?
At this point I'm not planing on tearing the bottom end down. All depends on the head and what I'm going to run into getting it servicable.
4) theres builtup rust in the channels and surfaces of the water pump, thermostat housing and the hot water-to heater shutoff assembly. I'll probably just replace the waterpump as I don't know if's still servicable but is there cleaner/soak that I can use to breakdown that hard rust?
Dave
