Just removed my cylinder head and this is what I found

http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/2/l_b758d6244b5e4e58b74fb4850c24d203.jpg



At first look (it was getting dark) it looked like corrosion but the next day in the daylight I found it to be dmg to the piston itself little knicks in it and mangled around the edges

http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/24/l_52efb4013fe642fb9e571685b40198ba.jpg


This is the bottom of the header also mangled around edges and deep knicks

Now Common sense tells me that piston and that piston alone was smaking the bottom of my header

My question is what causes this to happen and what needs to be fixed in this case

Why did you crack into that puppy in the first place? Misfire?

That looks to me like some one dropped something in that puppy at one time or another. Something likes a nut or maybe a screw. See that dimple on the intake side, of side of the valve seat? How is that valve seat look under the valve? See that split in the piston toward the intake (I think) side that is going to cause some problems because it is a hot spot making for one heck of a knock. In any event that head needs to be “cleaned up”. And I would R&R that piston. In any event that entire hole has been compromised. I bet that you will find scratches in the cylinder wall where some buts of crap was caught in the rings
With the cost of the gasket kit and the time to get to that puppy. I would get a junkyard head, and at least a piston. And probably a rod,
I have seen this before, one time some silly dropped the air cleaner nut into a old Windsor engine and it did that to the head and the piston as well as punch a hole through the block (found it in the oil pan) Usually you can get away with smoothing out the piston after a valve drops but I have never seen anything like this bolted back together.
But I bet that you can get away with just smoothing out both surfaces with a dremal tool. That is as long as the valve seat is not damaged, the head is flat, and the cylinder is not damaged.

Thanks for the reply. I craked it open because my wife stopped to refuel when she restartted the car it was making a rapid bad knocking sound we had to get it towed back to the house. the cylinder wall is still in good shape here what it looks like.

http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/34/l_c318515f54604ab3887924e4b16b203b.jpg

We drove this car from Philadelphia to wisconsin twice with no problems only recently it was having bad idling problems and running rugged then the loud rapid knocking sound occured the car was shut of immedietly and towed to the house

It looks like the head gasket is washed on the top of the photo. Was the head gasket popped, and that is what finally made it knock? I don’t know if I would try just smooth things out. That piston crack is probably at leased stressed all the way through. It I will leave the gambling to you. But at least smooth things out. I was just wondering if it you can find a POS in the Cat?

Again thanks for a reply

The Head gasket to my eyes looks to have nothing wrong with it no pops no splits, but I have a untrained eye to the important details of a head gasket and am looking for the obvious things like you mentoined. I noticed none. As far as gambling I am not a gambler. I have plans to replace the piston and take the head to a professional to have it fixed if it will be cheaper then just replacing it. My main concern here though is I replace the piston, get the head fixed and it does it again then I never solved the problem and wasted all the money. I was thinking head gasket failure at that end of the block because it is only that piston that the damage is to but again I am not a mechanic only know how to do basic down to the head gasket repair.

Look at these.

925097
932394
958189

What you are showing and describing here seems typical of the dropped valve seat, especially the way that it occurred.... driving along normally and minding your own business, stop the car, and then nothing but chaos from within when you restart it.

Read over the threads linked above and you will see that this is a common problem with Escorts. Based upon the pictures I see here I think you got off easy.

Get the head into a shop and have it resurfaced and have new valve seats installed.

If your cylinder walls look good, and if the piston is not cracked or otherwise damaged, then clean up the surface of the pistons and the engine block as best you can, but be sure not to get the debris into the cylinders. If you want to be thorough you can remove the pistons to clean/replace them, replace the rings, and resurface the block... but it doesn't look like it will be necessary.

What you MUST do before reinstalling is remove any sensors and injectors from the intake manifold and flush out the intake manifold. If you don't have a tank to dunk it in then try compressed air or any other means you have to make sure that there are no small metal bits still inside of it. Otherwise once you restart the engine you will suck those metal bits right back into your engine and have to take it apart again.

If your cylinder walls look good, and if the piston is not cracked or otherwise damaged, then clean up the surface of the pistons and the engine block as best you can, but be sure not to get the debris into the cylinders.

By the way, I would not be too worried about dings in the surface of the piston as shown in the pictures... just make sure it is not something more serious that is going all the way through. Also, stuff some rags into the cylinders and then wipe off the surface debris as much as you can. Remove the rags from the cylinders and then rotate the engine manually by putting a socket on the crankshaft. If it feels smooth as it rotates then you are probably ok. If you feel resistance then there is a chance your piston is bent on the bottom side and might need to be replaced... however I would expect to see damage to the cylinder wall if this was the case. Since you turned the engine off quickly and towed the car you saved yourself a LOT of damage (damage=money).

It's definately a dropped valve seat. How many miles are on the engine? I'm keeping track.

Thanks for the Reply

This is a releif. The engine does turn smoothy no resistance I can turn it by hand. As far as mileage goes I am unsure of, we bought this car off a friend in Philly. She got into a accident with it and they replaced the engine. We have had it for 2 or 3 years now and the 2 trips back and forth from Philly to Wisconsin added some milage on there I am sure plus the small trips we take alot in town. Through it all that car and engine have had no problems always maintained every 3 months tune ups once a year antifreeze flushes every year (I do this cause I live in Wisconsin and it is freaking cold here in the wither so around this time of year I do a full flush of the antifreeze to get it preped for winter) This is the first major repair needed on the engine thus far so I feel lucky that it is just a valve seat. I will keep u posted after the heads been resurfaced and the car is back togther. Thank you to all that have took the time out of there day to read my problem and post a reply.

By the way I knew it was a valve seat, For some reason I "thunk" I was posting to a Gm 3300/3800 thread. WOOPS. if you have an old escort its bound to happen sooner or later
In NY it does not seam to be that much of aproblem because they are rusted and gone by the time it happens.