nh7cy

Is that liquid in the cylinders gasoline, dirty water, oil, excess PB blaster? Anyway, you'll want to get your head resurfaced while you're in there. Doesn't cost much, got mine done for about $20 at a local machine shop. That should take out any imperfections such as pitting etc. caused by coolant mixing with the aluminum in the head over time, which if not filled in will cause any future gaskets to go in the same manner. Clean off as much of that carbon as you can, and take a close look at the head gasket, you should be able to identify where it gave out really quick.

DarylJ

It's just coolant from taking the head off. That was my picture before I touched anything (I do that a lot - just in case). I think getting the head decked at a place that know what they are looking at is probably a minimum - I'd like to go to some place that knows what they are looking at enough to tell me if I need to do any valve guides, etc in the near future so I can just have them take care of it at the same time.

As far as the head gasket - I just don't see where it has a problem. So I may have ripped this head off a little too quick - but I'm not too worried about it. With the unknown history on this car, I consider it a good PM.

I'm going to get into the oil cooler later today or tomorrow. I hope I find a horribly blown apart gasket. I guess the only other option is a cracked block. If that's the case, It's time to find some used 3.0 liter goodness.