You might try aircraft stripper ,it takes the clear coat off the engine side covers! won't damage alum.I think NAPA sells it.

The cylinder gasket mess is finally done.  I stuck with the CRC Gasket Remover.  Spray, soak, soak, soak, scrape, scrape, scrape, scrape.
Used a box cutter blade and single edge razor blade for the scraping.
It was like scraping on ROCK... literally.  I was scraping it off in a fine poweder.
Finally got it thin enough to pop it loose from the metal.. a very little bit at a time.
Never did try the heat method.  May have gone faster.  May have made it worse.

See the results in the gallery.
http://imgur.com/a/RhTYO

Also some pics of the cleaned up piston.  Thanks to Berryman dip for those results.

Now, for the question of week.  The sight glass on the clutch cover had a tan "gasket" (for lack of a better word) around it.  See the pics.  It was pretty much disintegrated.  Do I RTV around the glass, or just leave it alone?

It was like scraping on ROCK... literally.  I was scraping it off in a fine poweder..

Daaang,, that sounds like a serious not fun kinda deal.

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 10/18/16 at 04:14:17:


Very much not fun.  Took about a week.  
I am going to use a VERY thin (almost non existent) coat of Permatex Ultra Grey on the base gasket when I put it back together.

The report is in from Lancer on the cylinder head and valves.
As I suspected, the valves have a few.. issues.  

New pictures in the gallery: http://imgur.com/a/RhTYO

And narrative from Lancer (I hope I have them in the right order)
1. #2 exhaust valve with 2 distinct cracks developing on the top edge.
2. Intake valves looked decent on the back side but had a few minute cracks developing on the face.
3. Deep wear grooves on the exhaust valves.
4. A closer look at the deep groove in the exhaust valve.
5. Face of intake valve showing a distinct crack on the top edge.
6. Intake valves, no groove on the contact surface.

And a direct quote: "Anyway, the basics are that the valves themselves are trashed, with cracks on the face openly visible, and with very deep wear grooves on the back side of the exhausts.  
The springs are just barely inside the spec's, as are the valve guides.
All of them need to be replaced."

Happy happy joy joy..        

So, my original suspicion appears to be correct.
"1. Using too much oil (compression isn't horrible though.  Suspect valve seals)"

I don't know if the valve seats are beyond saving, I leave that to a machinist to make that call.

I seriously doubt that the valve seats will need to be replaced.  On the head I took to Bill Moeller at Bore Tech, he freshened up the seats and said they were really hard....he had to use stones to cut them as his seat cutter wouldn't touch them.  There is plenty of material in the seat for them to be ground to provide a new seating surface.

The valves however are another story.  They are made very thin and light on a modern engine, and they need to be replaced when they become worn....they cannot be reground.