Can anyone diagnose my engine trouble?

[VLC86]

Hey all.

So the car was misfiring pretty bad so i took it to ultratune. They did a compression test and said cylinders 2 and 3 had low compression and said it was a blown head gasket. Pulled the car off the road and took the head off. But the gasket seems to be fine. No major breaks or cracks even? And now markings around the bores.

So i currently have the head off and am looking at getting it reconditioned.

I thought maybe the valves aren't shutting properly or something? Here a fer pics of the head

2nd cylinder valve




Doesn't look like the head has cracked anywhere. And the oil and water are both clean and havn't mixed.

So before i get it reconditioned I'd like to know whats wrong with it

Cheers for any help

[soop]

Is the cam shaft still in it?
If so, thats why the valves are sitting open a little bit. If not they're farrrrked.

[VLC86]

yeah cam's still in. All i've done is unbolted the head and pulled it off and taken the photo

[soop]

Okay, thats why the valves are open a bit.
Are there any pistons that are especially cleaner then the others?

[VLC86]

Not really. Heres the best pic iv got. They all look the same as the one down the bottom

What would cleaner pistons mean?

[soop]

It can mean its had water going into the cylinder.
Is there any scratching on the bores?

Also drop the oil if you havent already and inspect it closely. IF the head gasket was okay (hard to tell, they don't always shit themselves completly) my only other thought is rings.

[VLC86]

Nope the bores are nice and smooth. All of them are.

Ok i might try dropping the oil out soon and inspect it. What should i look for as i wont be doing it for a few days probaby

[soop]

let it settle and see if silver rings form in the oil. If so thats a sign of metal in the oil. If there's anything more serious it'll be obvious.

Aside from that, I'm starting to think you might have had a bad ignition problem or a slipped timing belt.

[Pub247]

id like to see better pics of the head it always to diffcult to tell from pictures in person always best. Cyl 2 looks like it has a rust water stain around the lip.
Most common thing for vl heads is cracking and corrosion on water jackets causing water to get past under the gasket and into the cylinders (which will means gasket looks fine). If the heads cracked you wont see it till you pull the cam out as they crack 99.9% of the time in the cam tunnel

[ari666]

mate, i dunno but those head chambers look like a really nice colour to me. very little carbon, no white carbon, nice coloured valves...

had you cleaned it? or is that how it came off?

[VLC86]

Thats how it came off ari.

Im waiting to hear from a guy about when I can take the head in to get inspected. prolly next week sometime

[de_overfiend]

i had a similar issue with my old skyline... misfiring and no compression on a couple of cylinders. gasket had gone on the water jackets allowing water to get into the combustion chamber. verified it by taking spark plugs out and cranking it over (water came out ).
since you have the head off get it done and pressure tested. Make sure you check the block for flatness and put it all back together with new gaskets and you should be right

[VLC86]

hey thanks mate. I should be hearing back from the guy fixing it pretty soon. So ill know what went wrong soon.

[VLC86]

Looks to be the valves not shutting properly and hence losing compression. Getting reconditioned tomorrow morning and will be all fixed

Thanks everyone for the tips.

[bluebucket]

Yep, cylinder 2 and 4 are both slightly open, no matter where the cam is (seems to be on the #1 exhaust) that is not right