Do's/Don'ts of Engine Cleaning (Tell us your experiences...)

[LEEVON]

I have a cautionary tale. I had an engine out, on a stand. I degresed it pretty well, but it had aluminum heads and some paint flaking on the block. I decided to plug all of the exhaust and intake holes real well and lightly hit the trouble spots with the soda blaster. By the way, wal-mart plastic sacks make perfect plugs especially if you cram them in tight. The soda blaster did a nice job, took off some of the stubborn stuff and it came out real shiny. The problem came later when I started re-assembly. The first couple of accessory bolts wouldn't thread, then I started checking all of the bosses and most wouldn't thread. Turns out the soda went into holes, where there was still some moisture from cleaning and it turned hard as a rock. I had to chase many of the holes, and clean them out with a bottle brush. Still had issues and had to oil most of the bolts as well.