An update on this engine is long overdue!
Thread chasing:
I took the block into the center of my garage and chased almost every single thread in the motor. The reason I say almost every thread is because I found ANOTHER broken bolt. It is a timing cover bolt, lower left. That will also need to be extracted. I would have never noticed it if I didn't chase all the threads. The chasing of the threads went well for the most part. I was honestly amazed at how much junk came out of the threads. I took my time and went through everything. I mean everything. Each time the thread chaser came out, I cleaned it with the air gun. This process took a good chunk of time.
Cleaning the gasket surfaces
Next I cleaned up all the gasket surfaces. I scraped with a plastic scraper and used some other methods to get the surfaces really cleaned up. This was a fairly straight forward process. It was pretty easy since the engine was on an engine stand where I could spin it around.
Cleaning the block
The last thing I did was clean the engine. I did this outside due to ventilation reasons. I have a 2 gallon parts washer - it's pretty small. I ran an extension cord out to where the parts washer sat - right in front of the engine stand. I have a HUGE catch pan - the type they use under washing machines. I plumbed this to return the drippings from the block back to the parts washer. Then I connected a 4 foot tube to the parts washer nozzle. I used this to apply the parts washer solution to the engine block while I cleaned it with a parts cleaner brush. There was some splashing (I was wearing eye protection) but for the most part everything did drip back into the pan and subsequently into the parts washer. This process went on for a while. It was pretty amazing how much dirt and debris came off of the block. I also realized that when I spun the block, a bunch spilled out. It took some time, but after a while the block was looking pretty good!
Next I employed the compressed air gun to dry off the block. This again made for a lot of splatter, but it did dry everything out pretty quickly. The last step was to coat the block with some WD40. I have it in a handheld sprayer, so I was able to adjust the nozzle to a fine mist. I coated the block, let it drip for a bit, turned it over and coated everything else. I went through that process twice.
Once it was done dripping, I used the garbage bag and wrapped it up again. It went back into it's resting place until 7/22/2014.
Dropping it off for honing.
A very close friend of mine had agreed to help me do the cylinder wall correction and finishing hone on the block. He is a machinist and toolmaker, so he has a LOT of experience here. The problem is that he was not able to make time for me in almost a year - so I decided to look elsewhere. On a recommendation, I reached out to a machinist in a nearby town. After speaking with him, I dropped off the block on 7/22 so that he can put it under his honing machine. He will also be extracting that broken bolt! Hopefully he doesn't run into any unforseen issues!
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