Manifold off, now what?? Lol...newbie question

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bighammer

bighammer

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I got the TBI intake manifold off, and I want to clean up the mating surfaces, remove old gasket material, etc, so I can put on the Weiand intake. But looking at the top of the engine, it looks like I'm going to have to deal with all the crap going down into the valley of my engine. I've never had an intake off, so, yeah, pretty basic for you pro's here 😁 Care to help me out again? How do I proceed without getting crumbs down into the cam / lifter areas?

This is a 1990 LA block, 360, with only about 26k miles on a remanufactured. I was not planning on pulling the heads either. How can I scrape off the old gasket without creating another problem?:prayer:
 
I lay a dish towel over the cam / lifter area, the cloth lay's well in place as I clean.
I put paper towels in all my intake and exhaust ports aswell
 
start by stuffing the ports in the heads with paper , then lay clean rags , towels etc in the lifter valley covering everything from head to head , when you get ready to put it back together get a gallon of old oil and pour it over everything with the drain plug out and a catch basin in place , I do this a couple of times to "wash" the crud off , I pour the oil through a paper filter to get the big bits out before pouring it through the valley , I then like to coat the cam , lifters and everything else that moves that I can see with some sticky red assembly lube . I have cast heads so I just use a razor scraper for the big stuff then a scrubby pad for the final clean .
 
Lay some nice clean rags, or a garbage bag or something similar in the valley, tuck it up around the pushrods under the edge of the heads. Stuff small rags in the intake runners and coolant passages and scrape away. Scotchbrite and brake clean work good for a final clean. Remove all large debris, use a vacuum to remove as much small bits as possible. Remove all rags from the engine and ports. Check again that you have everything removed. Reassemble. After the first run replace the oil and filter and you are good to go. Remember to put a little sealant on the intake bolts to prevent oil leaks past them.
 
You guys are great, much appreciation! Man I wish I new more about this kind of stuff :banghead:
 
Put towel down on lifter valley under heads and along bottom.

Get a shop vac and suck directly where you are scraping on front and rear rail till they are perfectly bare metal.

Then clean rails with carb or brake cleaner.

Build a duct tape bowl between the front and rear rail once it is perfectly clean.

Stick paper towel down each intake port.

Then start carefully scraping debris off the intake surfaces of the heads while holding shop vac there so it sucks out all dislodged debris. Use small diameter nozzle such as 1.5" to increase velocity and accuracy of suction.

Work slowly and observe any particle that does not get sucked up, you may have to find it.

Once intake surfaces of heads are bare metal from scraping, then friggin blast them off with carb cleaner.

Pull paper towel out of each port while holding vacuum cleaner nozzle there. May get tricky for a sec while the vacuum cleaner eats the towel. Anyway, if the towel is soaked with carb cleaner you may not want it in a vacuum cleaner because of concentrated vapors so you might want to manually pull it from each port and just vacuum out the port secondly.

Then I have no idea, probably put your gaskets, gasket sealer and parts back on.

You may need an assistant who can crawl around on an engine bay.
 
:D Yea, just start it up and immediately hold to the floor for 30 seconds like my old hillbilly friends used to do when there were mice in the breather. Everything will come out the tail pipe eventually.

doogievlg said:
It'll be alright. That crap will get burnt up anyways :)
Click to expand...
 
Agreed with all recommendations. Just be neat and take your time. If you do drop anything in the valley, stop right then and get it out. Saving it for last is a sire way to forget you dropped it in there. Also, to save a little cash, use fingernail polish remover. It has acetone, is liquid without aerosol, and has acetone. Great cleaner.
 
WoodenNickle said:
Agreed with all recommendations. Just be neat and take your time. If you do drop anything in the valley, stop right then and get it out. Saving it for last is a sire way to forget you dropped it in there. Also, to save a little cash, use fingernail polish remover. It has acetone, is liquid without aerosol, and has acetone. Great cleaner.
Click to expand...

Great point on the nail polish remover. You could also buy acetone at your local hardware store.
 
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