I blew a head gasket and when I removed cylinder head the open deck set up has a valley that runs all around every cylinder and its full of coolant all the way top of the cylinder wall I have never delt with a open deck engine is this normal to have coolant surrounding all the cylinders?

 

That's how every water-cooled engine works. The coolant surrounds the cylinders in a "water jacket" topology to keep them cool.

When you only drain the system through the radiator, there will be quite a bit of coolant left in a Civic engine. They have a block drain plug to let the rest of the coolant out.

 

just so I know we are talking about the same thing im talking about where the arrow is that that runs all along the cylinders is filled with coolant all the way flush with the cylinder walls. where the X is I know are coolant passages and are suppose to have coolant in them. thanks again for the reply im just tryig to make sure....



[IMG][/IMG]



























.

 

Yes, coolant belongs there.

Note that if you removed the head without draining any coolant at all first, it's likely that some of the coolant spilled down the oil return holes in the front corners of the block and is now in the oil pan. In which case you should change the oil before trying to start the engine again.