because I am. Murphy has better odds than me or so I tend to think. maybe I'm just insecure...

I'm ready to re-install my head with the new gasket etc. BUT I can't help but fret that some speck of dirt or sliver of steel has dropped down into the block. I've blown compressed air and used the shop vac and been fairly diligent about being clean and covering my work but still...

I'm not worried about the coolant passages, I can flush that with water and clean that out pretty good.

I have some "cheap" oil to use at start up and will drain and refill with Extreme Blue and another fresh filter after warm up.

My question is: can I douse the oil chambers in the block with diesel or something else to flush any impurities into the oil pan and out the drain prior to bolting down the head? Or would that make matters worse? I don't want that little theorehtical speck getting carried off into a bearing orafice or some other tiny hole, starve the surface and bang!

Any advice, solace or should I just put my big boy britches on and finish the job?

 

The main thing to keep clean is the oil feeds for the rockers. Make sure the tappets are clean where the push rod sits, too. I adapt a drinking straw to the shop vac to clean up after gasket removal.

 

To answer your question about flushing the stuff out, you can't really, those passages go straight to the oil galley.

 

Standing in front of the truck looking at the engine, those head-bolts far to the right (driver's side / the long ones).

- Those holes in the block that those bolts screw into are the oil passages that feed the individual rocker assemblies. Flush them with an aerosol solvent followed by compressed air through a small tube (so as to blow out any stuff in the bottom of the bore).

 

The oil actually comes up the little ~1/8" holes in the block and jogs over inside a channel in the head gasket. It then flows up around the long bolts through the head and rocker stands, to the rocker arms.

 

Here are the oil passages in the head gasket.

 

I've blown out all the passages plus between the cylinders & pistons and even blown while using the shop vac. My concern is that on the big passages like the cavities where the pushrods go through etc that its big enough AND with the multiple openings the vac is useless and blowing might not dislodge particles but just move them around?

I can go back and hit those smaller oil ports for the rockers though. That will make me feel better.

 

If you're worried about metal in the oil, you can put a magnet on the oil filter. When those metal parts come through it'll stick to the oil filter on the next change. Usually a good idea when you're rebuilding a motor. The crank journals and the bearings while seating will generator metal fragments. Once the engine polishes them through friction you tend to see less of it.

 

Yep, poor choice of words on my part. I was thinking of the "stuff" that accumulates in the bolt thread pockets of the block. (I'm fixing to replace my rocker-arm assemblies due to heavy galling of the rocker bearings. Now, I'm just funny about the oil route. ).

 

Another good idea, thanks. Been reading about the ceramic magnets you drop in the center of the filter before you spin it on. I've left the block alone, just replacing the head gasket. I might try running a pick-up magnet into the bottoms of the bigger passages to see what I get. Make me feel better anyway...