Billiumss

iTrader: (11)

You have to scrape the old gasket off with a plastic scraper.

What do you do about all the small pieces falling down into the water jackets in the block?

Also, what about the lifter area?

How do you prevent this from happening?

Should I have someone hold a shop vac right next to where I'm scraping?

Here is where I'm at now: (I did get the water out of all the cylinders)

<img src="http://www.cofba.org/users/billiumss/Camaro%20SS/Head%20&%20Cam%20Install/DSC08851.JPG" alt=" - " />

<small>[ February 04, 2003, 05:54 PM: Message edited by: Billiumss ]</small>

NoGo

iTrader: (2)

Use a shop vac and an ice scraper at the same time.

Lost Time

I'd love to know myself. I just got done cleaning up the surface and no matter how hard I tried, quite a bit of debris got down in pretty much everything. I was planning on flushing everything out with a good cleaner and changing the oil/coolant after about 100 miles. Hopefully somebody with a better idea will chime in.

SPANKY LS1

iTrader: (24)

We took a razor blade, and pulled it across the deck surface, junk came right off. As far as material falling into bolt holes, we got a can of compressed air (used for cleaning computers, it is a pressurized aerosol can that blows only air, and has a straw attached to it so the air is pinpointed where you will need it) Don't forget to get all of the water out of the bolt holes. (We used rolled up paper towels like a Q-tip.) Beware , this tales a long time, and a ton of paper towels. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="gr_eek2.gif" />

DriveATransAm

i just let some of it fall in the water jackets. not all that much goes in. then i flushed the cooling system when i was done <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" /> i used a metal blade too.

OvalHunter

Shop-Vac with crevice tool and plastic scraper at the same time. I took the time to fill the lifter pockets with white shop towels on the drivers side - but after seeing how little the mess was - I left them out on the pass side. I was worried about the pieces of graphite plugging the radiator and heater core if they made it into the block and circulated.

BLUEBYU

iTrader: (1)

How much gasket material needs to come off? I have used gasket remover probably three times with scraping and rubbing with towels and cannot get all the gasket material off. It still has some grey areas. It is flat but wondered if all the gasket "stains" need to come off? By the look of your engine in the pics, it looks like you have quiet abit of gasket material left. Is this ok? If so then I should be fine.
Oh yeah, I rigged up the shop vac with some 5/16" tubing and duct tape to suck the holes dry before using an old head bolt that had two sides ground flat run through the holes 3-4 times to get all the gunk out (jmx's recommendation). Worked great! No blown pieces to clean up.

<small>[ February 05, 2003, 10:23 PM: Message edited by: BLUEBYU ]</small>

Slowhawk

iTrader: (12)

I use a shop vac to empty the antifreeze and pick up what I can.For getting the gasket off,I use a razor and patience not to score the deck.After that is done I sprat Carb cleaner on a scotch brite and get the rest of the gasket off.By the time I'm done(around 1/2 hour)the deck looks polished <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />

ZYA_LTR

Correct, after you razor blade the deck with a shop vac, you need to scotch brite the deck until it is shiny polished brand new looking, this extra effort will save you the hassle of not sealing properly nad blowing a head gasket, spend the extra 30 mins to hour to scrub it spotless.

jmX

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by ZYA_LTR:
<strong> Correct, after you razor blade the deck with a shop vac, you need to scotch brite the deck until it is shiny polished brand new looking, this extra effort will save you the hassle of not sealing properly nad blowing a head gasket, spend the extra 30 mins to hour to scrub it spotless. </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I disagree with this. As long as you get all the gasket material off you can feel so its nice and seemingly perfectly smooth, just leave it be. Geting the 0.0001" thick "stain" of graphite of is a waste of time in my opinion. I've done loads of head installs and I've never had a problem.

DERTY

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by jmX:
<strong> I disagree with this. As long as you get all the gasket material off you can feel so its nice and seemingly perfectly smooth, just leave it be. Geting the 0.0001" thick "stain" of graphite of is a waste of time in my opinion. I've done loads of head installs and I've never had a problem. </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Same perspective here.

BLUEBYU

iTrader: (1)

That's what I was thinking also. The soft graphite gasket under high compression should "form" to such small/negligable imperfections in the deck....Now come on Brian and give me those heads!

Reckless

iTrader: (9)

Agree with JMX....some people get a little too carried away with this stuff. Use a little common sense and you'll be fine. Compressed air to blow out the bolts holes is just fine. You don't need to cram q-tips or paper towels or anything else in there.