Upon cleaning up my heads to get them ready to reinstall, I have found a dimple in the surface about 30 degrees from where the head gasket failure is. It can barely be felt with your fingernail and I was wondering if youall thought it warranted getting the head machined down, or even completely replaced? Thanks!

 

I wouldn't run it with a ding you can feel right at the fire ring of the head gasket. I'd take it to a machine shop and have it checked. You may get away with just getting it surfaced. If it's high mileage and a solid usable OEM head, it would be best to get it checked out for any other work it may need to run another life. Good luck with your repair and let us know what you decide. Dead end threads suck.

 

I decided to take them to a machine shop for a good cleanup and resurface. I couldn’t find anyone in the area (Wilmington, nc) that was less than about $1k to do a full valve job and head rebuild, so I am going to go with a good cleanup and put it all back together. It ran great even after I discovered the blown head gasket so I feel like this is an ok route for now. This isn’t a daily driver or high performance off road rig so I just really want to get it back in the road for a decent investment and keep enjoying it. I’ll post some pics when I get the heads back.

 

Got my heads back this afternoon, they look great. The machinist said they weren’t warped at all, so that’s good! He said apart from that dimple, it could have just been cleaned up and bolted back on! But I’ll feel better with a fresh surface on them!