Took my head off, found piston with a hole in it=no compression.  Going to replace that piston and rings.  How should I clean up the head and valves-dont want to make things worse, but thought it would be good idea before putting all back together.
Thanks a ton,
Jesse

You should probably find out WHY it holed a piston before you slap another one in. Is the engine out of the vehicle? It would be a lot easier to strip it down for a cleaning and rebuild that way. You can decarbon the pistons in the block, scraping and chemicals will do it, but you have to be REAL careful to remove ALL debris from cleaning. You could easily clog an oil passage that way leading to a complete meltdown.  If the head is off, IMO, strip it down and give it a real valve job.

I agree; find the cause of the damage before you proceed. Check your valvetrain and make sure everything is there---keepers/locks and so forth. A number of things could cause damage to the piston face; did you lose any bolt or washers while working?

As for the clean-up, I would discourage you from scraping anything. Instead, use oven cleaner or soak em, based on how bad off they are. Scothbrite pads work well when used in combination of cleanser. With the oven cleaner, you would follow the directions on the can and then place it in an oven (wife won't be happy) and heat it as directed. The stuff in that can is potent so rinse of any overspray. Hope that helps and good luck.

A simple can of Naptha and soak the piston tops, it will loosen and make the carbon
come off easily, this is a trick that Chevron uses, they call it Techron, it's also added
to jet fuel to keep turbine engines clean inside