Wet Looking Exhaust Valve 5.9 Magnum

[Sam69sat]

Picked up a 5.9 magnum engine a few months ago out of a rolled 2001 Durango with 160K on it. Got to run it for about 15 minutes and it seemed to run good, exhaust looked/smelled normal, and it didn't overheat. Did a compression test and all cylinders were about 180 except for cylinder 5 which was about 160. Today i got around to pulling the intake and exhaust manifolds. I noticed cylinder 5 exhaust valve (the one with lower compression) looked wet. I know these things are notorious for cracked heads between the intake and exhaust valves. Could that be why it looks wet? It has an orange tint to it but some of the other exahust valves also have an whiteish orange tint but they don't look wet.

 

[pnora]

I would not consider 160 psi low compression.

 

[ckessel]

Mags do have a head crack issue. At one of the dealers I worked at, we usually kept 2-4 pairs on hand due to that.