Sorry so long...

I've read on several site and magazines that say the inside of the engine must be 100% immaculate when re-assembling, otherwise dirt, grime, lint, etc will ruin the enigne, mess with clearances, etc.

I'm putting my engine back together, and had to heli-coil one of the head bolt holes, etc. I used compressed air and a shop vac to clean all the shavings from heli-coil, lint from rags, etc, but am afraid I might have missed something. I used a hose to clean out the water passsages, but it seems like everytime I spray air in there more stuff comes out... not alot but enough to make you think WTF?

Is this BS, or are they serious? If so is there anything I should do before I "sew it up". Is a little debris in the water passage going to hurt anything? Do I just change the oil and coolant a time or two after I fire it up???

The water jackets are not as big of a concern, but any debris left in there will not evaporate,, it stays in the water jackets and the radiator. Clearances in the cooling system are not as tight as the oiling system,, OIL is you main concern. You want ANY PLACE that oil circulates to be sanitary. So clean that the only reason you wouldn't eat off of it is because you wouldn't want to get it dirty! Yes,, THAT clean!. Your right about debris in side the motor. It will jack with clearances. Just like throwing a hand full of sand in the oil pan. It will open bearing clearances up so oil runs through them like water through a sieve (not protecting anything!)

So then should I ... Spray the inside (crank, bearings, etc) with... Brake Cleaner / water (that would rust though, right?)??? Just to make sure I've got everything as clean as could possibly be????

Maybe do that and do 2 - 3 oil changes after running it for 5 minutes after the initial fire up???

Like I said, I'm PRETTY SURE it's ok, but I'm the kind of person who can only sleep if I triple and quadruple check stuff. Lol, like everyone else, I don't want to have to do this again.

The reality of it is,,, I've seen guys rebuild motors in a dirt driveway and it survive. IMO you should use PLENTY of hot soapy water and a set of cleaning brushes to clean every oil journal out, then install the soft plugs, paint the outside of the block and give it a nice bath of WD40 on all exposed raw cast areas, squirt oil in the oil cavities, everywhere. Wash and brush the crank, oil it, do the same for every piece and bag EVERY component (and your assembly) while your not working on it. Maybe a little anal to some, but look at any machine shop and you'll see pretty much that same practice. Why would you want to do it any differently?

Yeah... I'll admit I f'd up a bit. But this was the first time I did this (not a complete rebuild either rotating assembly - crank, cam, bearings, etc were all ok so I left them alone, block was clean so I left the freeze plugs, etc alone too.

Basically stripped the engine, replace the broke stuff, had the heads redone, new gaskets, etc.

WD40? I might spray that on the bottom end parts I can still get to (put intake back on last night - oil pan is still off) and then coat everything with oil. I'd rather be safe then sorry.

Thanks

i'd also recommend to wipe the cylinders out with clean "paper" towels,, not red rags or terrycloth towels. no rags with material fibers anyway. and on the "paper" towels,, wet them with automatic trans fluid to clean the cylinders with them. keep using a clean towel till there's no more dirt picked up by the "paper" towels. trans fluid is a dirt magnet and a great cleaning agent that keeps the cylinders from rusting at the same time. then when assembling the rod/piston package,, dab/coat some atf on the piston skirts and arround the ring package,, then wipe some more in the cylinders by clean hands ,,, then install the piston. works every time for me. hope it helps.
andy