Is this wear (or lack of) typical for a 69,000 mile 305? There is no scuffing, no scratches, and just a tiny carbon ring around the tops of the cylinder bores. The little marks you see in there is just flash rust from some antifreeze that got in there when I pulled the heads.

No big hurry on getting this one answered, it's more of a curiosity thing than anything else

Thanks guys,
Matt

EDIT: I guess a pic would help out here

 

Looks like your motor is in good shape. The ring is the usual because the pistons are shaped like junk from GM and the edges never reach TDC.

 

I wonder what my 125k mile L03 looks like inside...
I'll find out soon enough

 

might jsut be me but that looks abnormally clean inside.

 

lol, I wire wheeled the piston tops and all the gasket mating surfaces. My dad said that If I cleaned the carbon off the piston tops it will help prevent detonation. Glad to see you noticed

I was careful not to touch that carbon ring on the top of the bores though.

Matt

 

He's correct. Sounds like you have a good resource right there alongside you.

 

The only problem I see with decarbonizing pistons in the bore is the carbon usually winds up in the top ring land. The other problem is the coating on top of the piston is removed if a wire wheel is used over aggresively leading to faster carbon build up when the motor is running again. I see you didn't get too crazy and try to clean out the valve notches, which is when most people screw up and apply too much pressure with the wire wheel stripping the top of the piston.

 

Yep, he's great and very patient

I've sucked so much knowledge from him in the past 5 years, it ain't even funny. I don't know how I could have learned even 10% of what I know without his help.

And BTW, it's great to see you're back. I got kind of worried when one of the most helpful people on the board took off for personal reasons. I hope that whatever you had to take care of turned out for the best.

Take care fellas,
Matt