350 water channel q's (1 Viewer)

[ihatecrashing]

Howdy ya'll,
Well, I loaded up my new (too me) fj40 on the trailer, towed it to a garage and began the tear down and inspection of the 350. Ok, not a teardown, but a small removal of the intake manifold and valve covers.
Inside the intake manifold, and the headers, the ports for the fuel look fine, but what appears to be the water channels, there is a lot of build up. I don't know Chevy engines really well, watercooled engines for that matter(had a Baja bug for a while), anyway, is the build up a really bad sign? Is there a way to flush the water system? Should I be worried? Thanks for your help!

 

[lone gunman]

sounds to me like block sealer or radiator sealer. did your intake manifold gaskets have the little metal restricters in the gasket were the water passages are, they slow and limit water flow and that could be the reason for the build up. other then that i cant really think of why there would be build up of any sort in there. pull your radiator hoses and have a look in there too. does the build up look like a blackish sludge or is it rusty looking, if its blackish sludge its probably sealer. you can get one of the flush and fill kits and put it in and flush the block. good luck!

 

[ihatecrashing]

The gaskets don't have the restrictors, and yes the build up is blackish. I think you're right about the block sealer. I back flushed the radiator and everything seemed fine, no metal flakes, dirt, or debris. I'll get a hold of a flush and fill kits and give it a whirl. Thanks again.