Pictures of the head with the gasket removed, unexpectedly it was obvious that the head had been removed previously, maybe when the timing chain was replaced. It had not been skimmed, this would have added to it's ultimate gasket failure, nothing else particularly unusual here (yet), except No2 pot cleaner than rest which was expected.

As indicated by the state of the headgasket there is some extensive corrosion between pot No6 and the outer water jacket.

This will probably need some welding to build up the edge prior to being skimmed.

Valves were removed prior to some cleaning work to the head.

No2                                                             Typical Inlet Valve seat in very good condition

Most Exhaust Valve seats showed small ammount of pitting which I would have expected. When the remaining carbon was removed from No2 I found some cracks from the valve seat edge extending right into the spark plug hole. The spark plug was very tight and difficult to remove until the last 4 - 5 turns. I will probably have to get this welded and recut, maybe even new valve seat as the old one may have to be removed prior to welding. After some more cleaning I found one other crack in another pot.

                                                                    Inlet Valve                                  Exhaust Valve

                Head back from machinist

                        A thread insert was used to try and prevent the crack from spreading too far. The alternative was to have the valve inserts removed, the crack ground out, welded, re-machine, re-insert valve seat, machine valve seat. Cost would have been £250 upwards. Could be cheaper to source second hand head if this fails.The whole surface had been machined and then hand lapped.I had to jet wash the whole head as there was quite a lot of crap left on it by machinist, just aswell I suppose or I may have been tempted to leave it if it looked clean. At least now I know its clean. (I hope).

       The ammount of weld was substantial, the water port needed some re-profiling to bring it back to original shape and size. The small dot in the middle of the web between the water port on combustion chamber is a small weld inclusion, very difficult to prevent during welding considering the extent of corrosion. It should not cause a problem ( unless it goes into the water port wall ) and the only way to repair is re-weld and re-machine. Not an option as far as I am concerned.