Is this head okay to use?

[MantaGreen97]

I just got some heads in the mail, that I purchased from another forum member. I got them together with upper and lower intakes. Everything off an LA1/LG8 motor ("large port" as people seem to call them).

Anyway I noticed that the one head has a rather noticeable imperfection... It looks like a notch or cut right near the combustion chamber area, leading to the edge of the head.

I'm not really sure if it's that bad but it's about a few mm deep and really I'm kind of iffy about using these heads because of it.

I've just notified the seller to see what he says but I thought I'd post some images as well to see what everyone else has to say...









The other head has what I'd call light scoring (interestingly in the same area) but it's not as deep. I didn't take pics of that though...

Is this normal or are the gaskets going to seal these imperfections relaibly? Are these heads useable? I know that surface imperfections can be present and sealed by the gasket but I'm not sure about these, particularly the one pictured above. My LIM is currently leaking and I was replacing everything with large port stuff, but I would not want to create a head leak in the process! If anyone has any advice, I'd appreciate it.

[SappySE107]

You have to mill them down to get that out of there. It isn't going to seal as its right on the fire ring in the head gasket. Someone blowed that up.

[grandprixgtp_91]

well first clean off the old gasket material and if its still there have them decked 10 thou. and that should clean them up. and if theres anything left after that, it wouldnt be much so the gasket would proably fill it, and it doesnt look like its in the compression area, so just buy some good gaskets, gm or felpro, and use em. just before you have them decked put some jb weld in there and let it sit for a day or 2 , that stuff will really seal it up.ive used it in cylinder walls and it didnt fail.

Jake

[Darin]

From the looks of it in the photos, I dont think milling it will even help. Looks to deep.

[grandprixgtp_91]

actually in certian pics it does look like its into the compression area., but i think if you have it machined it would be ok

Jake

[SappySE107]

CLean it up and get a good depth measurement of it.

[MantaGreen97]

well first clean off the old gasket material and if its still there have them decked 10 thou. ...

Yeah you mean like 10 thousandths of an inch by that right? This seems to be a bit more than that, as in a few mm, literally.

I'm not sure if it can be milled out. I mean I can take them to a shop and see what they say I guess but it seems to me to be beyond what can be milled normally and become flat.

[SappySE107]

If its over .025", then yes, its probably junk.

[CNCguy]

Looks like it was ran for a while with a leaking head gasket. Seen iron heads and blocks worse than that before.... esp in turbo apps.

[davida1_hiwaay_net]

I had one like this when I was in the car business. It was GOOD and blowed up. The customer only wanted "headgaskets" but I knew it was not going to hold. So I glass-bead blasted the eroded area, then filled it in with JB-Weld. Next day I surface filed it flush with the deck of the head.
Both heads were warped somewhat. In spite of this, the JB Weld held up fine. The only problem was the rest of the engine was pretty well blowed up too. The rings / pistons were damaged and there was an oil control problem. The customer ran this sad engine for a year with non-foulers in all 6 plugs.
The car was wrecked before the JB Weld failed. But it was still going strong after a year.
Forgot to mention - It was so badly blowed up that the upper radiator hose had been on fire and the flaming radiator hose was the indication to the driver that her engine was not operating properly!!
Looking at this head it appears the erosion is deepest at the edge of the head, but mild at the area where the gasket fire-ring seals. The deeply eroded area should not be exposed to combustion unless the headgasket is already blown at this exact point.

[Darin]

If its too deep, tig weld it and then have it milled.

[grandprixgtp_91]

yeah i was thinking about that too, ive actually had it done before, but it was on my aluminum dirt bike cylinder wall. it worked fine, but i guess there is a huge risk of it cracking, you need to let it cool down very slowly, like put it in some sand.

Jake

[sharkey]

price out a core. many times a bare head from a core place will only cost about $50, so its realy not worth screwing around with something that may fail on you.

ive seen things like that happen lots before. on the dragsters, we have had it were you get a nozzle (injector) plug up and one cyl goes lean. lean coupled with a 44 amp mag and 60 lbs boost turns into a plasma cutter and tourches the head out and the block. all we do it weld it up and mill it flat again.