Fuel in oil on new engine rebuild

[78 280zcar]

OK, I finally got a chance to take the head off because it wasnt raining yesterday, the head gasket came off like it was still new, is this normal? Also there was alot of carbon buildup on the pistons already, is this normal after only 2000 miles on it.

[78 280zcar]

I have a little problem or not. I just took off one of the springs and measured free length and the inner is 53.0 mm and the outer is 53.0 mm. In the service manual it says outer 49.98 and the inner is suppose to be 44.85 mm. Is this bad or are these some kind of performance springs? Shane

[LanceM]

The head gasket is installed dry so it should for the most part pop off, carbon wouldn't be unusual on the piston tops and in the chambers of the cylinder heads. Can't say about the springs for sure but the problem is usually that they are short when old and need replaced, the only way to tell if they are performance is to check the compression strength of the spring compaired to stock.