Hi everyone!
Long time lurker, finally got registered cause I've run into some issues.
I lost a head gasket on my 86 pickup. Got it pulled apart today and started looking really close at the head and I noticed some cracks. My mechanic buddy who's helping tells me that they are normal and not to worry about it, but I wanted to get some other opinions. I found cracks on three of the four cylinders.
Do these look normal? Thanks for the help.

 

From your pictures I would say no that is not normal.

How does the head check for being straight??

Just how hot did the engine get or did you catch it before it got hot??

But the in person call is most often better .

It depends on your luck it might just be fine putting it back together .

Myself it would cause nothing but trouble .

Hard to know just what happens once the head is torqued and hot.

It won`t hurt anything but the compression

 

Mine had some small (Like i need a magnifying glass to see them.







A local shop was goin to pressuer test and deck the block for 80 bucks. But I said no thinks and. I got a new head of amazon ( This One ) I would not want to do all this work for noting. It's to much of a pain in the ass to cheap out and not replace the head. Im really happy with it.

Do you know the cylinder pressures before you took the head off? And for forget to check the timing chain/guides.

 

Those look like cracks to me. Have a machine shop to check the head. The shop I use charges $35 just to see if the head is serviceable. Then machine work adds up from there. A new head can be bought for 250-300.

 

If you can see it easily now it's only going to get bigger when your engine heats up. Don't double work fix the problems now. And consider finding a new mechanic friend.

 

Who needs compression anyway

 

thanks for the replies. I lucked out and found an OEM head for $100 that had recently been redone and installed on an engine for a day, only to have a rod bearing on cylinder #1 go out. The car owner abandoned it at the shop and the mechanic was parting it out to recoup his costs.

Thanks again for the help. This place has been very helpful in sorting out the little issues my pickup has. Finding the intermittent no crank thread was a miracle!