I ****ed up - advice needed - sand in motor (4 Viewers)

[BelgianHJ60]

So... I sandblasted my block fully aware of the risks.
Closed off all openings into the engine, using a fine grit and low pressure to get good results.
Turns out the gaskets of the valve covers failed and the grit is now inside the engine.

What are my options?

First off i'll vacuum most of it out as most of it is still accessible, i'm quite sure not toooooo much got in.
What else? Remove oil pan and start cleaning from the other side?
Would it be "kind of" safe to run it after I got 90% out and just change out the oil filter?

Important to know: engine is off the frame right now on an engine stand (not gonna be driving it for a while to come).
I fully drained the oil before, so there's basically no oil inside other than maybe a little down in the pan.

Please someone give me hope that this doesn't force a full rebuild...

 

[OSS]

Oy!
If it’s any consolation…
The engine blocks were cast in sand when they were formed and they got ‘most’ of the sand out of the engine before assembling it — so it’s certainly doable.
I don’t know how it’s done. I can only guess, which I’ll refrain from doing.

 

[aztoyman]

This is just me, but no way I would even turn it over with that sand in it. If it were mine, I'd vacuum out what I could and start disassembling it. If it is a good running engine I'd carefully keep parts in their original positions. Then I'd clean it all and reassemble with new gaskets and seals ,putting all parts back in original place.

Maybe others will disagree but I couldn't bring myself to run it without a tear down. Especially since it's on a stand right now. I personally wouldn't chance it if it were mine.

 

[BelgianHJ60]

It is a good running engine, where do those channels go to? do they go directly to the sump?
Am i right that an oil filter will in fact catch these grains of sand? they are 50-70 µm.

 

[aztoyman]

The oil filter is AFTER your oil pump. Like I said, just me. I couldn't take a chance. The lifters are in that picture with the sand all over it. I don't know where it all managed to get into.

 

[aztoyman]

Maybe start vacuuming it out and look really close. The grains of sand are going to stick to things if there is any oil film. Anything you miss will get washed down when you run it. It doesn't take much to cause damage in tight tolerance parts. The damage might just be a scratch or it might be bad enough to get progressively worse. Maybe you will get lucky? You have to make that decision whether you want to take that chance.

How much time and money doing a clean and reseal vs "possible" severe damage later. Hopefully you get some more opinions to help you out.

No matter what you decide , I really hope your engine is ok. The paint job looks really good.

 

[WildernessRimFab]

I'm with @aztoyman on this one. You don't need to do a "rebuild" assuming that you didn't turn it over yet.
Disassemble everything, clean it all as best you can, and carefully put back together keeping all rods/bearings in the same place.

After that, I would definitely run some cheapo oil and change it out quickly after it is running.

 

[roadstr6]

 

[Zjohnsonua]

You aren't going to like this: Those voids between the sand piles open up to the camshaft and into the pan. You'll need to pull the cam to get it truly clean. Even then, that sand went lots of places, and the smaller stuff will have spread. You need to give the crank a super thorough check for any sign of dust.

Do not expect the oil filter to do your cleaning. If sand is allowed to circulate that far you've signed up for allowing bearing damage. If this were my engine the bottom end would be coming apart for a cleaning. Your call.

 

[BelgianHJ60]

You aren't going to like this: Those voids between the sand piles open up to the camshaft and into the pan. You'll need to pull the cam to get it truly clean. Even then, that sand went lots of places, and the smaller stuff will have spread. You need to give the crank a super thorough check for any sign of dust.

Do not expect the oil filter to do your cleaning. If sand is allowed to circulate that far you've signed up for allowing bearing damage. If this were my engine the bottom end would be coming apart for a cleaning. Your call.

Thought so, i did not turn it over yet so hopefully I can clean it without pulling the cam. Just from the oil pan removed, svould give me access i think

 

[Spike Strip]

This is kind of uncharted territory, so we're all just spit-balling here, but were that my engine, and I didn't want to pull off more than the pan and covers, I would do as others have said and get high-suction shop vacuum with a nozzle tip and first suction up as much as you can, then use some kind of solvent, or kerosene to 'flush' the oil passages out into the crankcase, then flush the crankcase.

After all the flushing and things look as clean as they're going to get, I'd fill with a cheap oil and change oil and filter immediately after starting and running for just a minute. I might even do that a couple times. Oil/filters are cheap. Engine is not.

Good luck.

 

[kirvesmies]

are you sure no media got pushed up into rocker arm space through the push rod space? moving air can do some f%$ked up $h!t. if that were my bullet, it would get a complete tear down as i don't believe all the grit can be got out any other way.
not gonna do that again, are ya?

 

[toy_tek]

Sorry I’m on the disassemble, clean, and reassemble train. It’s a PITA, yeah, but cheaper than losing the gamble.

 

[dbleon]

Complete dissambly, hot tank block blow all passages the tank again .. then reassemble with all new seals and gaskets

 

[87CRUSR]

Sorry to hear your situation. Give the rig the care it deserves...Another vote for tear down and reassemble ... better safe than sorry.

 

[roma042987]

No way in hell I'd run that without a full tear down.

 

[tmxmotorsports]

I agree with everyone

 

[georgebj60]

It’s easy to dispense advice to others, especially when it’s about the hard and sometimes costly work to do things properly. But right now you have 30+ year old functioning engine. And unless it’s already been rebuilt/resealed, it’s probably overdue. Might as well get after it. Tear it down. Think of how good the paint job will look after you can paint it disassembled!

 

[Tennessee80]

Not to make an example out of @BelgianHJ60 here, but if he were to want to do this all over again, and do it right the first time, what is the suggested method instead of sandblasting? I certainly get the shakes when I think about all of that grit everywhere inside there.

 

[2000UZJ]

Not to make an example out of @BelgianHJ60 here, but if he were to want to do this all over again, and do it right the first time, what is the suggested method instead of sandblasting? I certainly get the shakes when I think about all of that grit everywhere inside there.

I would look into dry ice blasting. The machines seem pretty expensive, but so it getting sand in the engine.