I am building my first motor from the ground up but ran into a question. Is power washing the block a really important key before assembling a shortblock? Why I ask is I put my engine together, its ready to drop in, but after reading some things it seems like alot of people recommend washing the shortblock before hand. Am I taking a risk here? is there anything else I could do to clean it while its assembled? Should I just bite the bullet and dissasemble every thing to clean it?It was machined at a very reputable machine shop here and looked very clean when I picked it up and though nothing of cleaning it.
the shop cleansthe bocks after machine work most of the time they leave behind honing grit in the cylinder bores and maybe small metal flakes people usually clean it out id say run it for 30 minutes to 1 hour and change the oil
Any decent machine shop should not give you back a freshly machined engine with shavings in coolant/oil passages.
There's nothing wrong with washing a block. I would suggest hand and air drying it immediately afterwards. Then just coat it in some light oil to keep rust away.
wash it with dish detergent and purple power in hot water then dry it with an air hose and paint it, put motor oil on all the bores (cylinder,lifter) and decks.
Please, please dis-assemble it and wash it. You know those little white, fuzzy, bendy things people use for decorations? Get some of those and run it through your crank and block oil passages along with some hot soapy water, you'll thank me later. Punisher has it right, soak the block with purple power, get some hot soapy water and scrub the block down (don't forget your white fuzzys ). Rinse it off good, wipe off the machined surfaces (bores & deck) with a CLEAN lintless rag and quickly spray it down quickly with WD. Machined surfaces will start to rust almost instantly if you don't, be alert. Air hose the rest of the block dry, being sure to keep the WD handy. After your done drying wipe some oil in the bores and deck. Your block may look clean, but there are always places where dirt is hiding, just trust me.
