2.23.2003-Don't Stop Cleaning, it's gonna be a car someday

Sadly there is not much in the way of news to report this week.  I did move the block back to the solvent tank for another round of cleaning now that the liners are out.   I managed to get a lot of the junk that was caked around the inside of the block out and now I'm ready to go at it with a slightly more abrasive media.  I'm going to use a wire brush chucked up in an electric drill to clean the corrosion off the studs and on some of the other areas.  After that I'll chase all the threads with the appropriate die and get the block cleaned for reassembly.  It's pretty much at it's most elemental state right now, there's really nothing else to remove. 

I also began removing the head gasket material from the top of the block.  This is a trick job because it's important to have a clean and uniform surface for reassembly but one has to be careful the way you remove the old gasket.  The Alfa gaskets have a built in adhesive that gets activated with heat in order to seal the head to the block.   This results in a rather thick coating of gasket material and glue on the head and the block upon disassembly.  You must be careful if you use a razor blade to remove this stuff as the head and block are obviously aluminum which is obviously soft, so obviously you could do great damage if you're not careful.  Obviously, I attempted to be careful.  I found that some steel wool soaked in lacquer thinner did a good job of softening the material and that scrubbing on the surface helped clean it up pretty well.   There is much more work to be done, but I'm confident that with time, elbow grease and patience I can get the head and the block cleaned properly.

The pictures at the right show this work as well as the inside of the block now that I've given it a first cleaning.  It will get much prettier after I get in there with a wire brush to clean it up. 

Ciao!

TJ