trash in cylinders--how clean before heads back on?

While I do agree with your skeptisismisism(can't spell, need sleep), I've seen worse crap thrown on an engine last years.

One Chevy I worked on for a guy, he brought heads that were laying in a ditch in a junkyard. I had to clean dirt out of every port (FULL OF DIRT), part and hole for the first cylinder. Bolted'em on (as per his instructions) and cranked it right up. Never in a million years would I have run it, but it fired right up.

On that same note, someone gave me a 302 that was wrapped in a shed... cylinder walls were rusted so bad it took me roughly 12-16 hours total to disassemble the bottom end. Needless to say, I haven't rebuilt that engine...

 

it had the aircleaner and the exouhst manafolds and the y pipe still on it.

 

just wipe it out without turning it over, most of the stuff you are talking about will burn off in a matter of mins. just make sure the walls are oiled good when you put the heads on. J.M.O...frank...

 

I'm not that lucky. We traded for a 4.3 for my sons pickup, came out of a running astro van, fellow left it outside coverd with plastic and a tarp. Water got in, stuck the rings. Now we have got to pull it back out, going to disasemble and use crank and rods from it in his block, which I carried to the shop to be worked yesterday....

 

I'd spray each cylinder with brake cleaner and wipe it down. Repeat several times until the rags are "relatively" clean. Then coat each cylinder with a small amount of ATF and rotate the assembly to lube the walls. Install top end, fire engine, enjoy.

 

I put the dizzy back in where it was, rotated the engine until each cylinder pair hit bottom, wiped out all 8 cylinders with trans fluid, rotated until the next pair hit bottom, wiped, etc for 2 complete revolutions. Then stopped with the dizzy pointing straight forward, for future reference. I then added another 1/2 qt oil through the dizzy hole, just to wash some of the gunk down from the top. Before starting, I will drain all the oil, new oil, run until warm, then new oil and filter, and hang a good-luck charm off the mirror, just in case.