So before my unscheduled trip to the EMERG and then the OR, I had managed to dismantle the stock 5.3 intake and get it removed from my 5.3 project. Doing this left me with a nasty mess of accumulated crud and corruption on the valley cover that finally yielded to a lot of scrubbing with varsol and brake cleaner. For the intake ports on the heads, I went with CFC free brake cleaner exclusively and it did a good job of dissolving and removing most of the carbon deposits. Think this engine either mush have idled a lot or, started and driven without any warmup, or was used for short distance comings and goings.
All of which brings me to the intake gasket faces on the heads. Once I had cleaned away all the schmutz what I found was that the gasket surfaces where the original gaskets had set had undergone some kind of "electrolysis" activity as the gaskets had marked the aluminum and left tracking or a light pattern in the metal. The fingernail across the surface trick does not catch so these marks are not particularly deep or wide.
I would like to try and buff them out but I am not sure what to use, or even if it is necessary. I am thinking that a buffing ball mounted to a dremel tool might work, but I also thinking that 600 gr wet/dry paper soaked in either cutting oil or even brake cleaner and wrapped on a flat sanding block might work as well. My main concern here is to avoid damaging the surfaces further in the process. These are not cast iron units like the old SBC's that you can wail on with a hammer and a chisel, they are aluminum and, for values of the term, "delicate" in that it is easy to get too enthusiastic and end up removing too much material; = junk.
Any suggestions or recommendation here??
Nick
All of which brings me to the intake gasket faces on the heads. Once I had cleaned away all the schmutz what I found was that the gasket surfaces where the original gaskets had set had undergone some kind of "electrolysis" activity as the gaskets had marked the aluminum and left tracking or a light pattern in the metal. The fingernail across the surface trick does not catch so these marks are not particularly deep or wide.
I would like to try and buff them out but I am not sure what to use, or even if it is necessary. I am thinking that a buffing ball mounted to a dremel tool might work, but I also thinking that 600 gr wet/dry paper soaked in either cutting oil or even brake cleaner and wrapped on a flat sanding block might work as well. My main concern here is to avoid damaging the surfaces further in the process. These are not cast iron units like the old SBC's that you can wail on with a hammer and a chisel, they are aluminum and, for values of the term, "delicate" in that it is easy to get too enthusiastic and end up removing too much material; = junk.
Any suggestions or recommendation here??
Nick