Troubleshooting Head Components

Hey gang. I’m back. Update on the project is this: I took the head to a good family friend to get his ten cents on the subject. After some evaluation, we realized the exhaust valve guide on the 4th cylinder was giving us trouble, hence the severe build up and evidence in the exhaust manifold. He offered to just refurbish the whole thing, acid dunk to get the crud off, guide work, milling, and painting for $200. Sounded like a helluva deal considering my time is limited with work and grad school. I told him have at it at that price. I’m more comfortable now that I’ve heard he’s the best around having decades of experience on street and track rebuilds. Wasn’t the initial plan at all, but I figured “why not.” Certainly couldn’t hurt.

I am curious about the clean solvent trick… I’m still figuring out the do’s and don’t’s of the machine while it’s still partially in tact. If I did pour the solvent, and one cylinder had a failure, I would obviously need to drain the oil completely and wipe out the excess solvent. If I am not in a position to fix the error (and since it ran fine before), would I simply put the head back on, put in new oil and filter and rock on? Or would I need to clean up a bigger mess before putting humpty back together?