emilgojny

So I had a headgasket issue. Disassembled everything, got a new head (old was cracked), got all genuine gaskets etc, checked the deck, cleaned everything, bottom tapped for studs, about ready to put everything together. I barred the engine to clean the other two cylinders only to discover this (see pics). Cylinder #2 is scored, smooth scoring in the front, and a gouge kind of shorter score on the side.

How bad of an idea is it to put this together as is? I don't have money to fix it and I need a truck so its either I put it back together as is, or sell the truck as is and buy a gasser rust bucket just to get me through until I can afford something better next year.

If I were to put it together that would be only until next spring when I hope I will be able to afford a rebuild. So needs to last maybe 10k miles.

The rest of the cylinders are fine and the truck ran fine before the head gasket blew.

What would you do? All opinions are valuable! Thanks!


scoring in the front

scoring in the front second pic

gouge score on the side

gouge score on the side closeup

BHD

Other than the gouges, the cylinder wall doesn't look bad. Are they deep enough to catch a fingernail?

emilgojny

The ones in the front you can feel with a finger but won't catch a fingernail. The bigger one on the side will catch a fingernail.

Rug_Trucker

How many miles, and was it using oil? If not I wouldn't lose any sleep. Use a lube in your fuel like Marvel Mystery oil. I run that in my cars. It keeps my injectors clean, and lubed.

emilgojny

I only had it for a couple of weeks before it blew the gasket and in the 800 miles I drove it it did not excessively smoke or had a lot of blowby. Not sure about oil consumption.

mopar2ya

If you can catch your finger nail, thats not very good. Measure the bore and see if you can ball hone it a tad.

Rug_Trucker

I rebuilt a 360 that burned a valve. The valve stem snapped off. the piston munched up the valve and the pieces went out the exhaust. This was a junk yard engine. The cylinder wall was pitted pretty bad. I did a light hone to the engine as it was already .040 over. I ran that engine 175,000 miles. It never used oil. I would run it.

thrashingcows

The 440 I have in my old 68 Chrysler T/C wagon was in a parts car that sat for about 15 years, I did not prep on the motor and just fired it up, well several rings were stuck and they tore chunks and scoured the walls pretty bad...been running that motor for 12 years now with nothing more then a new set of used heads and gaskets....uses a bit of oil but run good and would get 15 mpg when driving on holidays in it.

So I agree a ball hone, a new set of rings and slap it back together.