A Clean 289

The weekend project from last October is finally done. Gotta love a clean engine...

I didn't pull the engine, but probably should have. It was a pain to get it clean with it sitting in the engine bay. The motor has over 100k since the last rebuild, but runs fine. Good compression, no smoke, strange noises, etc. The engine really showed it's age when I popped the valve covers and intake manifold, however. The sludge on the top of the heads and the valley was unbelievable. Chipped the gunk loose with a screwdriver and into a waiting shop-vac to keep it out of the passages. The screwdriver came in handy on the outside of the motor too, digging massive amounts of accumulated grime from the nooks and crannies. Overall it took about 50 scotch brite pads, nine rolls of shop towels, 10 gallons of Simple Green, a dozen bronze wire brush drill attachments, and a gallon of laquer thinner to get it clean. Plasticote 224 engine paint was the best match for the remaining area of original engine paint under the air cleaner.