Well I can't get either of the block drain plugs out......is there another way to drain the block enough to swap heads. I would just pull the heads but I don't want to contaminate my oil. Ive already drained the radiator and disconnected all lines......started to take the head bolts out when I saw coolant coming from the bolt location......luckily that was the 1st bolt I loosened so I don't think it has gotten in my oil.
you can remove the intake and siphon out the coolant from each bank, most of the coolant should have been drained low enough so should not be too much left when you remove the intake. can also remove the water pump and siphon the coolant from the block too, again will have to do both sides of the block. even after you remove the heads, there still will be a little coolant that will fall into the cylinders, can be easily mopped up or wet/dry vac out. won't hurt anything and you probably will be changing the oil anyways.....
You can remove the lower, rear, head bolt on each side and siphon out the coolant with a small hose or piece of tubing... Or you can remove the water pump and siphon out the openings in the timing cover, but that is often hit or miss...
You need to bite the bullet and change the oil, regardless of whether any coolant gets into it. There will be other trash to deal with too, not just coolant.
X3 on the oil change... I would run some cheap oil in it for about 5 mins to flush out any water/coolant that is in the heads/ valley. then put the good stuff in w/filter change.
Oil change it is then lol. Instead of buying new cheap oil to run for 5 mins and changing should I just run the motor with the old oil in it for a few minutes and then change to good oil and a filter change? My budget is tight as it is, especially after a 230 bill from the machine shop lol. I'll probably just siphon the coolant from the lower rear head bolt since that was the first bolt I started to pull when I got my leak anyways. Thanks guys.
and if you jack the motor up a bit while using that method.. the coolant level will drop below the point of much.. if any contaminating the valley or cylinders when the top end gets pulled apart while it's resting back down on the mounts again. With a head swap the lack of intake gasket removal requirement lessons the contamination chances but cleaning the leftover head gasket material off without any debris contaminating the oil or water passages/bolt holes is the bigger hurdle most times. Lots of towels and bits rags in the water passages along with a shop vac before pulling them all back off is usually the key to a nice clean job that doesn't require an oil change. Seen and done it many times and you should always attempt to be extra clean even if you plan on changing the oil anyways.
doing that will just mix the oil and water in the oil passages and lifters...you don't want antifreeze to sit in any part of your motor for any length of time. when I run in a new build, after about 50 miles I change the oil and filter. this to me flushes out all the passages of any thing that is inside the motor.
I would think all the water should be below the heads if you drained the rad.... maybe not if the T-stat bypass hose is crimped or stopped up and no holes in the T-stat...
Running it as is will give any trash in the oil time to get sucked up into the oil pump, something you don't want to take unnecessary chances with . But it's your car and wallet.
My reasoning for running it was allowing trash thats not in the oil pan thats lingering around the heads, etc, etc to get in the oil so its changed with the oil. I'm worried I'll put fresh oil and filter on it and then pick up all the trash and be in the same position. I took quite a lot of care to keep everything really clean so I shouldn't have much trash in it, hopefully lol. I ended up just pulling the heads and there wasn't much coolant left in the heads that came out after draining the radiator. Had to do a little bit of mopping in a few cylinders. Good news is that the pistons and cylinders look really good. Hopefully with any luck I"ll have the intake back on today and be able to test fit the pushrods and rocker arms......and with good luck everything will be good so I can change the oil and fire it up.
As for the trash in the oil now, you can wash that down with diesel fuel or gasoline, then drain the old oil.
Good idea. I washed the trash down with some spare gas I had in the garage. The intake is torqued down. Once I get the pushrods in and all the rockers bolted down I'll be ready to drain the oil and add some fresh stuff in for the first start.
