my mate just got rid of his old vl (dont no what possest him to do that), so therefore he gave me all of his spares to use on my beast including a cyclinder head. when i got the cyclinder head it had a wierd grey powder all over it and it was a strange dark grey colour. he said he had cleaned it in a bath of degreeser and that was the effect of the degreeser. all i want to no is if this head and its parts are still ok to use. cheers

"Grey powder" could be anything. Using a degreaser to clean a cylinder head is not likely to do this. In terms of it being usable, grey powder is not going to hurt; just clean it off. However, we cannot determine if the head is damaged in other ways, such as cracking, warping, or damage to the cam tunnel. I suggest you have it inspected by a cylinder head specialist.

the **** on it comes off on my fingers and if i run a wire brush over a part of it i can see the original colour of the metal. im just not sure if the degreser has effected the metal in some way. it just seemed strange to me. it was completley covered in degreser for about a week. cheers

Take it down to the guys at James race engines, they can give it a look, and a hardness test to see if its anygood, if the head has been to hot at some point in time the alloy can become soft, and you will run into headgasket problems. As for the degreaser, a hardness test should pick up any damage done to the head if any is done at all.

yeah its just a bit of oxidisation (corrosion) and degreaser will cause it too. It's not ideal but still not a problem either. It has occured because is wasn't dried thoroughly enough after being washed. How do all the valve's and valve seats look. They should still be shiny or at least clean. Give it another wash, dry it and then wipe it down with a clean rag and some fresh engine oil to stop it oxidising again. Or instead of the oil rag, give it a light spray with some WD40 or similar