slverbullet

okay, originally pulled my water pump off to replace it because it had a leak out of the little hole in the bottom. figured since i had the water pump off (and the fact that i just paid the car off) i'd pull the engine out, get a p&p on the heads and put in a new cam. just got done pulling the heads off and found the (driver side rear of the block) cylinder full of water. of course was just slightly obvious when i pulled the valve covers as well. i got some awesome pictures of this. i dont really have any way to post them though. let me know if anyone wants to see them. anyways, was it a gasket leaking possibly (how would i be able to tell?) or should i look for a crack in the block? i cant see one now, but i havent gotten all the water out and the piston is about 1/4 stroke from the bottom. now this thing has been sitting in my garage (just pulled the engine apart today, but pulled it two weeks ago) and the cylinder wall has some very slight rust building up in it? where do i go from here??
thanks in advance
dave

Loadre

$100 its just coolant that leaked in there when you pulled the head.

slverbullet

k, even though i just pulled the head about an hour ago and it already has rust forming, its from pulling the head?

this might be important also, the cylinder head, the piston and the actual cylinder is a shiny silver (with the exeption of the light rust) while the rest of the motor (heads and pistons) are completely black. that would be one of the main reasons that i dont think that it was from me just pulling the head.
i thoroughly checked the gasket that came off of it and it looked like it was in decent shape. i do have pics of this stuff btw. thanks again.
dave

shoebox

If that cylinder only was clean, then it was probably a blown head gasket (or at least coolant was leaking into the cylinder while the engine was running).

slverbullet

k, as i mentioned before, the valvetrain had a yellowish foam throughout (appearing to be a water/oil mixture). so would the blown head gasket also cause the water to travel throughout the rest of the valvetrain as well? thats what i'm thinking, but i honestly wouldnt know how to tell if it was the gasket for sure. also, what would be a good solution to rectify this problem? besides new head gaskets, should i take it to a professional mechanic and have him look the block over?

as far as rebuilding the block, should i go ahead and replace the rings and bearings on this engine also for good measure? the block has about 45k miles on it. but i want to fix it right the first time.
dave