Rough block deck...
 

Now I have a picture of my number six cylinder and it seems to be slightly roughed up. It seems minor but I want to make sure that there wont be a leak. Do you guys think it will be a problem? What are my possible solutions?[IMG]P4030699.JPG[/IMG]

I'd get the block machined.

cre, can you say why you recommend machining the block? what from the picture did you discern, that warranted machining.

just curious.
thanks.

Always hard to tell from a picture, but the erosion between the cylinder bore and the water jacket are enough to stop me from just slapping it all back together. Overall though the surface isn't clean enough IMO, the indentions from the rings, the pits from the former HG, scratches.... and so on.

Connor, were you loosing coolant or did the coolant have an excessively high pH before you pulled the head off or before the HG blew (if it did ever blow in a big way)? As clean as that piston is compared to #5 it's been seeing a fair amount of water.

I was losing coolant... Heres also a picture of the old head gasket. And if I were to get it resurfaced to correct the pitting, would I need to make any modifications to the pistons, rods, bearings etc., to account for the loss of the material for the block?

Sorry to say this, but as far as I can tell from the pic what appears to have happened is the previous HG (guessing it was done fairly recently) went in the same area & somebody was a bit over zealous with the cleanup of the affected area. TBH it looks from the photo as if it's been hit with fairly heavy sandpaper or wire wool... And then the resulting block warpage has given the effect we see here with the next HG.

I'd have to agree with cre that machining is the only sure way to make sure it's within warpage tolerance, the head may also need skimming now if that's in a similar state. As to modifications after a skim, it depends on how much material is removed & I can't think of the specs off hand but it's in the tsrm anyway & if both head & block come within the tolerances after skimming then you don't need to do a thing.

However if (as usual, as the factory tolerances are tight-ish) there is too much material gone for a stock HG you can go for a thicker metal HG to take up the difference, you'll need to look into head/deck finishes for that route though as they have to be mirror like... IMO best have the pair finished to MHG surface roughness specs from the get go & then if you find you can get away with a stock item (if you really wanna by then!) fair enough, but if not you're not stuck then with running back to the machine shop for more sessions & more material/not to mention cash, lost...

starting it up
 

So I finally finished working yesterday and it was time to attempt to start it. It started up after only a couple of seconds and it seemed fine. Then I noticed a a bit of white smoke coming from where the exhaust manifold meets the exhaust. Any ideas on what may be the problem?

did you strip any of the exhaust bolts?