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Finally got around to visiting Oakham treasures at Portbury, near Bristol today. What a place!! Lots of tractors, engines and agricultural displays, shop displays, enamel signs, the list goes on. If you are ever near Bristol, it is well worth a visit ( just make sure you have a good couple of hours spare).

More Ohlsson Rice powered machines and Jobbers back from storage this evening... Tractors back over the weekend

And powered tracked trailer. Be interesting to see how it's steered.

Cleaned up and some tie rods made, I went for m10 so had to drill out slightly on the steering rack end.

Nothing would touch the carbon other than the rotary tool with a steel wheel and wd40 after a screwdriver scrape (I was very careful with both). Lots of dings in the head so figured I can't make it any worse. The piston going to look like the surface of the moon I bet. Think I'm done on this now after 1 more sheet for good measure tomorrow

To be honest, I would say you are there with it. Hopefully the new gasket rolled lip will sit in the same depression area remaining. You have enough flat area for a gas tight joint now. The original pic of the head showing the blown gas leak areas, which I later showed and denoted (but forgot to explain) with green arrows are now fine. There is just the chamber carbon deposit areas to finish back to bright and you're done with the C/head. Nearly time to arm yourself with a torque wrench and bolt it down to the sequence in the manual.

Comparing what you started with, it looks a whole lot better. I have never seen one that badly distorted. In an attempt to be practical and honest, I can't help thinking that it needs more done to prevent further leaks?, but I'm a pretty fussy over-cautious person. If you stop there, call it a day and fit it, there is a risk it will leech gasses past the gasket to the two uppermost, red circled bolt holes. I can''t say what the level of risk is. At least the head would not be distorted again when bolted down to spec (unless the cylinder gasket face is not flat). I can't be sure but I think those 2 bolts go onto blind holes?, so may contain any further leaking, but will make it difficult to remove them in future. The 3rd red circled hole with the black arrow carries the bolt which I believe sometimes breaks into the Exhaust outlet chamber. That looks like it would be ok, as you have a small, clean flat face between it and the head chamber. I understand/admire your self disciplined, marathon efforts to get to this stage, but it's your call really. Maybe if you could continue at least to the point of obtaining a flat 'land' on the chamber side of those two top circled bolt holes?. It may help if you place the head down on the paper and presuming you are right handed, place the palm of your hand (ball of your thumb) over the Spark Plug hole area, you can apply slightly more pressure to that area and less over the opposite end. You would emphasise more localised metal removal that way and still achieve flatness. I don't think there is any issue with Valve (lift) Head clearance as a result of metal removal, but it would be worth checking anyway. Just wondering if you have obtained/downloaded a copy of the K series Engine Service Manual?. It's very helpful. Keep at it, you'll be rewarded with a better running Kohler in the end.

This Gasket looks perfectly serviceable as an example (others are available)- K341 . Someone has de-coked that in the not-too-distant past and may not have checked the flatness before refitting, or bolted it down in the wrong sequence and torque setting. Clearly burning fuel at a rich setting, as the exhaust valve should be pale fawn/white colour. The good news is, it is not yet burning any oil from worn rings or cylinder. You should not have a problem cleaning the face up on the head. It's quite straight forward. Just take it slow and let the weight of the head sit on the W or D paper when circulating it. You can use a P320 grade or P240 if it's rough to start, then progress to finer grades. No need to press down hard on it. Use a brush to clean the dust out of the paper regularly (use a mask). If you find it hard to tell the high/low spots, use a coloured felt tip pen to highlight them. I had to learn and have done all my engines that way, even if they didn't need it. I had to start with examples like this- to this- Done properly, you won't need to revisit it after.