Questions about piston crud (pics)

[Kean_SHO]

Im pulling apart my old 3.0 block and found this. Can anyone diagnose what caused this? I was planning on using the heads from this block... should i be doing some maintenance to the valves? Im already doing the shims. Should i be looking at doing something else??

 

[Phoenix]

If the pistons looks like that , the valves will look about the same. Clean them up.

Donno for sure what caused the crap though. Im thinkin bad gas/oil burning. But dont quote me on that.

 

[Mrhappytuzi]

kind of lookin like your burnin a little oil there

 

[rubydist]

It looks pretty typical/normal for an engine that has one or more of these:
- hasn't been run long enough to get fully warmed up regularly, so carbon buildup is significant
- has been burning a little oil (common on these engines, especially if they sit for long periods or if they didn't change the oil regularly.)
- has been running colder than it should, or richer than it should (thermostat stuck open or 02 sensors bad)

It should clean up fine and be good as new.

 

[SHO_DOODmorrris]

heres my bet. it burns a bit of oil and is used for short trips to and from work/short errands that do not allow sufficiant engine warmup.

-M