I’m writing to ask whether these can be cleaned up or would it be best to replace the rocker arms.
Back story: I previously owned this car and sold it in 2021 after repeated overheating issues.
First overheating issue came from a cracked radiator. Replaced it and thermostat. Ran fine for a couple of months.
Second overheating issue happened a couple of months after new radiator install. I noticed excessive coolant coming from the water pump weeping hole. Replaced water pump and timing belt/components. Again, everything ran fine for a couple of weeks until randomly it would overheat approximately 30 minutes after running engine and especially after sitting idle at a stop light. I assumed perhaps the new thermostat had failed. I replaced it again and decided to do an oil change as well.
This brings me to the final issue, upon draining the oil I noticed it was slightly milky. I removed the valve cover and it was milky inside the head. I knew from there the overheating issues were coming from the head gasket. Unfortunately I didn’t feel like tearing it down again and dealing with the timing again, so I sold the car. Fast forward to a week ago, I randomly found the car listed on marketplace. Guy said it recently had a head gasket replacement, ran fine for 2 weeks, then “died” on him and wouldn’t start.
I decided to buy the car from him, which was not the same person who bought it from me. That let me know it had exchanged owners twice since I had it. I got it for $600 at 245k miles. Only 15k miles had been put on it since I had it.
I get it home, change the oil, which was like thick coffee creamer. I thought, well perhaps they didn’t change the oil after the head gasket replacement. I added about 2 gals of gas to the tank because it was reading low on the gauge. Turned the key and it was cranking but not starting. I pumped the gas pedal and eventually she started up. Ran rough at first with white smoke, but cleared up after a few minutes. Sounded pretty good and I decided to drive it around the neighborhood. I drove it up and down the street a few times, in total it ran for about 15-20 minutes. Seemed fine, until I noticed the temp gauge began to climb. I immediately came home and parked it. Checked the oil and it was mixing with coolant again.
Now back to the issue at hand. I decided to tear it down to remove the head. I wanted to see if the head is salvageable for another head gasket replacement. I open the valve cover and immediately see rust covering the rocker arms. I’m able to wipe some off, but I’m unsure how deep it goes. I’m wondering if I can clean it up with some WD40 and a brass bristle brush or if y’all think it’s best to just rebuild this head and replace the rocker arms.
Here is a picture of the head with the visible rocker arm rust.


F23A1 rusted rocker arms