How to clean up a head

So, I finally pulled the head on my 944 turbo and found this:

Forgive the crappy cell pics. That's a very melty burned valve. With the head off I'd like to clean the head up from all the carbon (yeah, it burns some oil). What's the best way to do this at home?

wait till the wife is gone and toss it in the dish washer with cascade or put old washer in basement.

wow.. most burned valves I have seen have the head melted off completely. I think you got lucky.

It might be best to disassemble and send off to a machine shop to check for trueness and have them put in in new guides and seats...

oh if cascade don't take off enough of the crap and your not worried about a shinny finish use "GLISTEN" dish washer cleaner it will strip paint too so becarefull.

Scared me there! From the title I thought you were trying to clean up a human or animal head you'd found in the ditch or something.

Course that might have been because I've been trying to get dead floaty turtle out of the pond for the past hour.

OK, I'm trying to avoid machine shop work and anything that will revoke my bedroom privileges for months on end LOL. Power washer with some detergent (my power washer has a siphon feed hose I can drop into a container of cleaner)?

I think you're going to need some machine work, at least on that one valve seat...I'd bit the bullet, take it to the shop and have the head rebuilt. They'll take care of the cleaning, and then you'll know the head is in good shape. Nothing more frustrating than putting an engine together and then finding out you have to take it apart again.

exactly... been there, done that.. It's not fun.. and worth doing if you factor in how much a second headgasket, bolts, and other related parts will cost when you remove the head and put it back on

I agree. You did the hard work in pulling the head off. Now it's time to do the right things and have it properly serviced at a machine shop. Picking up the clean and rebuilt head will be a pleasant experience and you won't second guess yourself when reinstalling it and firing the car up for the first time. I've been in your shoes before and made the same mistake.

Agreed ^. You're going to need to disassemble the head and look closely at all the valves and seats - while you're there it's folly not to have it tanked, the valves ground (or more likely replaced if it's got a lot of miles) new guides pressed in and reamed, and the seats cut. I'd wager it'll need a thin skim as well.

It the grand scheme of what one's time is worth (infinity since it's irreplaceable) I'm way too cheap not to fix everything once and right...

carguy123 wrote: Scared me there! From the title I thought you were trying to clean up a human or animal head you'd found in the ditch or something. Course that might have been because I've been trying to get dead floaty turtle out of the pond for the past hour.

Only in the Off-Topic section should you expect this.

+1 for the machine shop, no need to be cheap here, do it right the first time