I am located on the west coast of Sweden, Europe.

So I finally pulled the heads today. Went smoother than expected.

When I separated the riser from the manifold on the port side (where my problem is) I saw evidence of water in the exhaust. Guess this has been going down to the cylinders. Might be the reason for my blown head gasket?

Once I pulled the head on the port side it was obvious the gasket was blown and the cross-firing between the cylinders has been burning though the head. I heard this was a possibility and it is obvious in my case. I will never get a gasket to seal that and it is too much to be able to machine it off. The head is scrap...

What is more troubling though is what I saw in cylinder 8. Here I see what looks like a hairline crack almost halfway around the cylinder.
Still no signs of water in the oil and compression was 210 on that cylinder.

What would crack the block. Freeze-damage, right? Maybe overheating.

I did not have any evidence of overheating when the gasket blew. In fact I only know I have had an overheat-problem once and that was 2009 or 2010 when the oil-cooler-filter got full of seaweed and was clogged.
I also know that back then 2009 and 2010 1) I didn't know the correct procedure back then and didn't empty the block of water before filling it with anti-freeze/water mix, but rather just flushed it with anti-freeze-mix which might have left the block with water in it in some remote locations without much or any anti-freeze. 2) we had a really cold winter either 2009 or 2010.

If what we are seeing is in fact a crack could this have happened 5 years ago I didn't notice?

Is the block done? Just get a new block and heads and move on?

Thanks for all your help!

Mike

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