Cylinder Head

The top “half” of the engine, and the part of the engine responsible for the breathing. The cylinder head sits on top of the engine block, and contains the engine valves, and often the camshafts as well.

The cylinder head valves are controlled by the rocker arms, pushrods and cam shaft. The pistons move up and down in the cylinder and the cylinder head tops it all off.

Like most everyone, you may have heard or even had an engine with a blown head gasket. This gasket seals the head to the top of the engine. Most problems with a blown headgasket are that the engine is leaking antifreeze or coolant, or even burning it. Another problem can be low compression in the engine, misfire, burning oil or fouled out spark plugs. Any repair of a cylinder head problem is usually very expensive to fix because of the amount of labor involved in doing the repair.