FRporscheman

Nothing in the cylinder catches my nail at all. I really don't want to pull the piston out right now. The weather sucks and I'm running out of time before school starts again. So unless someone says "OMG that cylinder looks like a catastrophe waiting to happen" I'm going to just oil it up and put the head on.

boost feen

It looks like the gasket was just really old and failed huh? Do you have pictures of the gasket right there where it burnt through? It really tells you what was going on it there?

I would suspect maybe the cylinder head just is a little out and the motor got too hot 1 to many times!

Make sure that when you address the head rebuild and re-install you make sure the cooling system is working right?

FRporscheman

Shawn, you're right, the gasket was at least 10 years old and the cooling system had a small leak. I'd top off the coolant every couple of weeks and it was OK. Then my mom drove it for a few weeks and it "nearly" overheated.

The leak was always internal (it ate coolant) so I think the new HG will fix it but I'll keep a close eye on it.

I'll post pics of the gasket later today.