Before anybody notices what heads these are and mentions it i know i know... This is a camaro forum and these are 5.0 gt40p explorer heads, but i like you guys and your expertise. Anyways can someone tell me why these heads look this way? Also is this salvageable. The last pic is of normal cylinder

 

well the rust and discolouration is just normal sitting and aging...
however the shiny dents and dings are from something that got into the cylinder and bounced around. could be the ground strap of the spark plug, a piece of intake manifold, debris, anything. the heads can be cleaned up with a lil bitta elbow grease and time

 

looks like it had a blown head gasket that was leaking over to the next cylinder. be a good idea to have or do a valve job and have it checked for cracks.

 

The orange stuff I know its rust so it doesn't bother me Tue only thing that worries me is the really bad looking cylinder to the far right.

 

I would not keep those valves, but some polishing on the chamber should clean up those nicks. I would also vote to have them checked for cracks just in case. It doesnt look too bad though.

 

Taking old used heads like that and slapping them on an engine without doing anything to them should NOT be an option. You WANT to take those heads to a machine shop and get them checked and re-worked. Anything short of that is doing a half-arsed engine job. Unless the heads are cracked, their cosmetic condition isn't an issue, as when you get them back from the shop they will look nice and perty again.

 

+1 on what Camaro69 stated.

Aside from the rust and crude that built up on them, you can't tell a lot from a quick visual. They need to go to a machine shop and thoroughly cleaned so that you can do a proper inspection.

Unless they are cracked, any problems found can be fixed by a decent shop.

 

thanks I know they don't look pretty but was just curious as to why they looked like that. I'm selling them so the machining is on their end I got a good machinist that works for cheap so i always do a full valve job when I do heads. I've just never seen heads like that. I might just stop by his shop and ask if he's ever seen anything like it. He did say for $300 he would do a complete valve job.

 

could be it was running to long on antifreeze or overheated one to many times.

 

Were these heads taken off a very recently running engine, or was the car sitting for a good while?
The crud, corrosion, and rust they have makes it look like they've been stored on a gravel driveway.