Good news, everyone!

If you didn't say that in Professor Farnsworth's voice, then I pity you.
The head came off this morning and I am pleasantly surprised.

So clean!  The nasty head hid a nice secret.  There are no carbon deposits, scored cylinder walls or any damage that would make me believe that the rings are in bad condition or that anything was amiss in the inner workings.  The fact that the pistons look in such good condition and that honing crosshatch is still visible makes me think that the engine was rebuilt sometime in it's 23 year life, a welcome revelation.  How in the world so much grittiness saturated the engine, I have no idea, but thank goodness for oil filters.  The oil passageways on the left are full of nastiness still.   I'm trying to figure out how to remove it, but that's not too big of an issue.  I was then preparing to give the contact surface a quick clean and buff to prepare it for reconstruction, but my drill is currently with another good friend who is using it to assemble his new fish tank, so I gave everything else necessary a quick once over to make sure it's all there.  The newer head is still clean and has been so infrequently run since we rebuilt it that I would consider it still newly rebuilt.  Intake and exhaust manifolds are still fine too.  A new set of pushrods, manifold gasket and head gasket are waiting in the wings.  I didn't get to final assembly today like I wanted to, but it's not difficult and I should be able to get it all together this week and prepare for the next phase of cleanup for the car: wiring!
Now I'm off to see this superb owl everyone keeps talking about.  It must have really pretty feathers or something.

Getting a "head" of the game

Ha ha, bad pun.  But still...
Despite being frozen like the day after tomorrow, work did continue on the Gremlin.  All manner of connections, bolts, and baubles were removed and the manifolds and valve cover are discarded to the scrap pile.  What I found underneath was disconcerting to say the least.  This supposed well kept daily driver was coated in enough gritty, nasty grime to choke a goat.  Look for yourself:

Blargh

Looks like it went to the beach and got buried in the sand by unruly children.  I think Ejeflyichicajookawhatever volcano blew up into the oil fill cap.  Reminds me of a Louisiana beach in late 2010.  I was contemplating just replacing the petrified valve cover gasket and leaving the old head on the engine for fear that the other head would over-stress the piston rings, but now I can't imagine leaving this chunky salsa covered thing on.  Imagine all that sandy crud breaking loose and circulating around inside the engine, blocking passageways and causing mayhem.  Gahhh  *shudder*  We've had enough mayhem for quite some time, thank you very much.
I didn't get much past that, as I was distracted by a good friend I hadn't seen in a while.  And a movie concerning CGI owls.  I have ADD.  Ooohh....pretty colors!
The head bolts have been loosed and the head is ready for removal, but I'm leaving that for tomorrow for fear that I might ruin the rest of my evening depending on what I find underneath.