Feel free to move this if its a newbie quesion

Im tearing down my engine to replace the head gasket. There were a lot of exhaust leaks, and coolant got into the exhaust system. after removing the exhaust manifold I see this on the ports.

then after getting the head off I see this.

As you can see, cylinder 1 is pretty clean, 2/3 are rather dirty and 4 is somewhere in between. Can anyone tell me why this might have happened and what can I do about it? Also should I clean them or is it fine to reassemble with them the way they are?

 

When coolant enters the combustion chamber it has a steam cleaning effect and thats why the metal looks super clean. As long as the gasket mating surfaces are clean you're okay.

 

agree with what he said

 

Awwwww, beat me to it. Yep, looks steam cleaned to me.

"There were a lot of exhaust leaks, and coolant got into the exhaust system."

BTW, a head gasket leak is really the only way for coolant to get in to the exhaust, at least on this engine. Good luck on the head gasket!

 

No No No no no no No No No no no no No No No no no no!!!!!!!
Theres definitely something else going on here.

What kind of gas milage are you getting right now, i mean right this second?

 

right now I WAS getting about 15 mpg, but I attributed that to the 31's, the 5.71 gear ratio and a lot of stop and go driving in town

 

I,,,,ummm, well I was,, sorta, sorta, sorta just kidding with that. Was actually being extremely sarcastic.

In all seriousness those are in fact steam cleaned.

 

So what is it?

 

I like to losen my head bolts a little from time to time and drive around, let the cylinders clean them selfs.

+1 On the steam clean.

 

Thought so on the sarcasm.........I see you clarified it right before my post.

 

allright then, it was steam cleaned. would there be an advantage to cleaning the other cylinders? or would that be just a gigantic pain in the ass?

 

Souryy. It was in reference to those pesky mpg post's lol..


Well from the pictures id say your rebuilding it, so yaaa id clean everything.
Do what ya can with the cylinders, I know there a pain to clean but its your motor.