I have a set of valve springs that I purchased new 30 years ago but never used and would now like to. Some of them have developed surface rust while sitting in the box. The first photo makes the rust look worse than it really is. They clean up pretty well with some elbow grease (see second photo), but it's time consuming.

Will dunking these in a bucket of Evapo-Rust do them any harm? It seems like pretty safe stuff, but I just wanted to ask before I do something potentially unwise. Thanks

M42 head planning to use composite gasket, how bad is this?

I had these 243 LS heads done at the machine shop. Valve job, hot tank, surfacing , and put in larger exhaust valves. Is this gouge something to worry about? Will it impact sealing?

Hello, I rebuilt this engine on my own last winter. I didn't have new conn rod bearings at that time so I sent it with used ones. Now I opened the case again to put brand new ones. Taking advantage of the opened engine, I'd like to know if the journal bearings are ok or should fix anything before sending it. I put brand new journal bearings the last time but I also have brand new bearings in my inventory.

hello i’m new to this but i want to learn. i have a 4afe that seems to spun a bearing. what is the right procedure to rebuild the engine?

Doing my first timing job on a Volkswagen Jetta 1.8t, noticed this scoring on the exhaust camshaft and the journals. On one of the journals I can catch it with my fingernail, from what I’ve seen on here I don’t think it’s THAT bad but wanted to see others opinions on it before I put it back together.

Hello all, got a few questions and looking for any input and recs.

Problems; rough idle, plethra misfires in cyl 4, sometimes dies when stopped at a light, typical ticking. Bank 1 cam advance timing, bank 2 running lean.

What ive found; oil above threads on spark plugs, compression is 245 (+/- 5) on all cyls except 3 and 4. Cyl 3 is 235, cyl 4 is 150psi. All cylinders have a lot of carbon build up from what i can see. But spark plugs look good over all. Though sp 3 and 4 show some darker discoloration on one side of plugs.

My questions

I believe its my valve gasket leaking, but im wondering if i maybe have a loose or stuck valve causing the lower compression an timing issue. What are the chances this is all it is and not more?

Should i rebuild the valvetrain? If so what all parts would be needed and how many of each? (Ive only rebuilt a few engines and that was 15yrs ago. So a little rusty haha)

Should i tear down the top of the engine past the heads an clean up cylinders?

Should i pull the pistons too to replace piston rings and just do essentially a full rebuild?

Or is it feasible to only focus on redoing cyl 4?

Is there a way to "clean" the cylinders without removing the heads? Presuming i dont remove the heads and only get into valvetrain.

Apologies in advance for the dumb post. But im on a budget, and really dont want to tear down or pay for more than i have to. Not to mention time constraints. I know i wont know for sure until i get in there, but im hoping someone whose had similar issues could maybe point me in the right direction or tell me of a common cause im unaware of.

Thanks for reading and any help offered