Block surface prep for headgasket

[n2motorsports]

Hi all, I'm in the middle of a headgasket job and being my first, I wanted to ask some of the seasoned wrenchers how the block looks and if I can go ahead and slap the gasket on. The build is just a normal daily.

Sorry, I'm posting for a first time in awhile and cant sort pics. Top is the finished, using a green pad. Though I thought I was being careful, vacuuming while scrubbing a lot of debris made it down the piston, as they clung to the side of the walls. I spun the cranks over several times to finally wipe away all debris.
the other pic is when I pulled the head, gasket came off with little effort and no noticeable HG failure that my armature eyes could tell. The other pic is the first round of cleaning with plastic scrappers.

the head was sent to a machine shop and no cracks were found, pressure tested and valve cleaned.

[n2motorsports]

Here is a close up of the cylinder closest to the firewall. As you can see there is clearly an outline of previous gasket but its below the surface, I wont be able to remove without removing material. At this point, I'm hoping it's good enough. Thoughts?

[digger]

is it flat? does a razor blade grab any material? did you scrub with a chemical cleaner and non absraive scourer? stains are ok but you shouldnt be able to feel any irregularities

[n2motorsports]

is it flat? does a razor blade grab any material? did you scrub with a chemical cleaner and non absraive scourer? stains are ok but you shouldnt be able to feel any irregularities

A razor glides right over. I started with acetone and finished with brake cleaner. Running a white microfiber barely picks up any dirt.

[vWBIRDWv]

Looks good to me , Stains are ok but nothing else!!

[econti]

Run it, it'll be fine

[15Michaeljoseph]

Looks good to me. If you're still paranoid, you could maybe spray the HG down with some copper gasket spray before install. Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

[n2motorsports]

Thanks for all the input, I'll run with it.

Any ideas how to clean out the debris from scrubbing pads that fell into coolant?

[roguetoaster]

If the passages are dry, adapt a smaller line to your vacuum to get in the passages ot cover them as you apply suction, alternately, a wet vac will also work. The area where they will cause the most damage is at the heater core valve, so if the system is still wet consider not hooking up the heater core until the system is thouroughly flushed of debris.

[digger]

Flush it out

[n2motorsports]

I think I'll do a combination of both. While working on the car a few weeks ago, some coolant mixed with oil splashed into a plastic container, i let it sit there for 3 weeks under the sun and it never evaporated, so the mixture, though I drained the block, is probably at the bottom. Plan is to pour some vinegar or citrus acid and flush with a steady stream of water. Of course Ill cover all the oil holes and cylinders.

Best place for water to enter block? Thinking this plastic piece, goes into heater right?

* not my pic, credit to someone here on R3v

[roguetoaster]

Left side of that pipe goes to the block, right side to the heater core, bottom to the expansion tank. The plastic water pipe is also broken, so you can just remove it and use the port in the block and do the other systems independently.

[bmwman91]

I'd say to put the head back on and flush it via the upper / left side coolant hose that runs into the thermostat housing. That will run water in "from the top" and will wash down through the passages between the head and block. With the block drain plug out, you can run a pretty high flow through there. When my HG went last year, I drained as much coolant as I could into a container for disposal, but basically flushed it as described above out in my driveway because I did not want any risk of coolant drips in my garage where my cats hang out. You can really run a hell of a volume of water through there that way!

I also recommend having the other two radiator hoses disconnected from the radiator as well so that anything that makes it their way will also leave the engine.

[n2motorsports]

I'd say to put the head back on and flush it via the upper / left side coolant hose that runs into the thermostat housing. That will run water in "from the top" and will wash down through the passages between the head and block. With the block drain plug out, you can run a pretty high flow through there. When my HG went last year, I drained as much coolant as I could into a container for disposal, but basically flushed it as described above out in my driveway because I did not want any risk of coolant drips in my garage where my cats hang out. You can really run a hell of a volume of water through there that way!

I only wash the daily driver 1 to 2 times a year so I've accumulated some water credits...lol