Hey everyone,

I have my engine apart for new head gaskets. After removing both heads from the engine I decided to clean them of as much gunk as I could before putting them back in the car. I soaked them in Greased Lightning degreaser for about an hour then rinsed them off and took a spray bottle full of the stuff and started scrubbing them rinsed again.

This morning I woke up to find them rusted to absolute h*** (guess I didn't rinse well enough?). This is the first time I am doing a head gasket replacement on a live engine (did many in school but those engines never ran) so rust is making me nervous.

I attached some pictures to give you guys a visual of the amount of rust I am faced with right now.

My question: Is the amount of rust too much? It's mostly surface rust but there is also a fair amount of pitting. Will this go away once the engine is back together and running? Or am I destined to go broke on buying new heads (no machine shop local)?

Also I plan on installing these for new rocker arms: So I'm not worried about rocker arm rust.

Thanks in advance!!

Pictures (file size too big to upload):
https://i.imgur.com/ux1bmin.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/hYPhmYl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/zEEJDJF.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/JzwoWDj.jpg

 

New thing to learn ANY time you rinse off iron with water spray them down with WD 40 or wipe them with oil.

Try to clean them with WD40 and a rag, see how much rust wipes off. They may be ok.

 

Yeah I was thinking it wasn't a very good idea to use water but I nothing else to rinse the degreaser off with so I just went with it.

Thanks for the tip on how to get rid of most of the rust though! They're already looking better but I also think that's partly due to them being wet with WD-40.

Question. Do I just let the WD-40 sit on the heads until dry or is there something to rinse it away with?

 

STOP RINSING YOUR HEADS!

Spray on the WD40 and rub them vigorously with a towel. Most of the surface rust should come off. After you are done spray them down and let it stay on.

 

Haha, I didn't mean rinse with water. I've learned my lesson!

Will the WD-40 affect the engine in any way if I re-install the heads on the engine?

 

It might smoke a bit as it burns off but no.

 

Alright well thank you very much for your help. Once I'm finished scrubbing and soaking with WD40, I'll upload more pictures to get your opinion on them.

Thanks again!

 

Alright so I sprayed them down with a good amount of WD40 and let them sit overnight. They're looking much better now. What do you think?

Also, any tips on removing the old gasket material? Seems like they've been cooked a bit due to how little has come off after 3 hours of scraping with a box blade.