What would cause this the head or the rings? I am mechanical enough to take things apart as you see. But I have no idea how to diagnose what my problem really is.

 

I'm in the same knowledge bracket as you I can take it apart and fix it but don't know much with diagnoses. My GUESS would be rings though looks like oil got up there.

 

Yeh that's what I'm thinking too. Guess I'm gonna go ahead and work on getting the block on out and tear it down. guess the tranny bolts will be easier now with the head already off haha.

 

i would send that head off and have it checked out. was there any unexplained coolant usage? did that cylinday smell of raw fuel?

 

No coolant loss or over heating issues. Bad blow by at highway speeds. I did smell fuel sometimes though. Didn't smell raw fuel when I pulled the head. I'm gonna work on pulling the block this week. Might as well do a full rebuild

 

I know this isn't going to help since you've already taken the head off-BUT when you have bad blow by, the procedure I was taught was to do a compression check-when you find the bad cylinder(s) squirt some motor oil into the cylinder and then repeat the compression test. If the compression improves, then it's the rings. If it doesn't it's the head (valves or seals).

Since you've got the thing apart-you may as well bite the bullet and do it all-rings, bearings and get the head checked. Doing the machine work and getting the new seals installed won't kill you-or else get one that's already rebuilt.

The photo showing the cylinder-I'be tempted to measure the ridge at the top of the cylinder. I forget the exact specification-I think it's @ .020- then you'll need to bore it out enough to get rid of the ridge-and this way you'll know that you have nice round holes.

A mechanic\racer I knew once told me that once you start having to replace things, you may as well dig into it deep because the strong new stuff will make the old weak stuff break sooner-better to do it all at once.

Best of luck!

 

Yeh I agree. I had good compression on all cylinders. That what I was told by my uncle. It also ran like it was new (power wise) but I am going to go ahead with a complete rebuild. I have everything off now except the motor mounts to pull the block. I plan on pulling it out next Saturday.

 

You can have good compression but still have bad oil control rings.
Have a good look at the valve guides and seals too.

 

+1 on the valve seals. But, since you're already doing a rebuild, might as well change it all