Finally pulled one of the heads off! So I have questions:

[FurryWrecker911]

How bad does it look?
What gasket kit should I go with?
Any "extra" cleaning steps I should take part in? (like soaking the whole thing in brakleen or something? I'm kinda winging it at this point now)

ALSO, when I pulled them off a TON of coolant came puking out the deck and turned my garage floor into a nice pond. I wasn't ready for that. lol

Lastly I kinda broke my windshield cowl in half on the passenger side, and the driver's side is just cracked to the street corner and back, so I am in the market for a new set. Both sides are beyond their better days.

Taking a dremel to the exhaust tomorrow to get the driver's side off. The cat heat shield bolts are completely knackered.

[RalphP]

I can't answer the others offhand - but!

What year is your SC?

The upper cowls changed for 1993, so a 89-92 cowl set won't fit your 93-95 SC if you have one.

RwP

[FurryWrecker911]

What year is your SC?
RwP

1989. That's actually really good information to have because I was gonna spend time trying to nic the ones off of a 93' i've been cannibalizing all weekend. It was cracked to bits making it worse off than my current ones, so I didn't go for it, and now I'm really glad I didn't.

[BLOWN38]

The burn looks good. Just clean the decks up good and knock the carbon off the ridge at the top of the cylinders. Get as much caked on carbon off as you can. Tho it doesn't look like there is much. If you want some good carbon remover. Go to a yamaha or mercury boat dealer and get Yamaha combustion chamber cleaner or Mercury Power Tune and let the parts soak in that.

Yup extra coolant when you pull the head is normal.

Also you may want to turn the crank to get each piston to the top of the cylinder and take a measurement to see if any rods got bent. Not sure how bad your head gasket blew or if it did tho. If it didn't blow you should be good.

Oh yeah and get some ARP head studs. Lots of guys like the ones from the Grand National I think instead of the SC because of the price and they are a tad shorter to clear exhaust manifold bolts.

[KMT]

>have questions

You can see the fire ring fail on the headgasket, back cylinder around 10 o'clock...pretty common location, I think, mine was down around 8.

For the block, just clean it, being sure to inspect as you go. For the heads, get them checked for cracks & leaking valve seats, then if they pass, have them refinished. RA20 finish is a good result, but not all machine shops have the equipment it seems, so shop around.

I use Fel-Pro gaskets (near stock engine), they sell a top end set. You'll need new headbolts too. There are many details to complete the job...search here on past threads with steps, etc.

Good luck.