I have a big block (on an engine stand) that I just removed the paint from using aircraft paint stripper and a wire brush. The intake manifold was off while I was doing this, but I stuffed the holes with towels to make sure no paint filings got down inside. However, I have noticed that there were some other holes that I failed to plug up and it seems like some filings might have gotten inside -- this includes the location on the heads where the exhaust manifold bolts up to... stupid me . What's the best way to ensure that there aren't any little paint chips down inside the engine, or do I even have to worry about this?

 

assuming none fell down the dist. hole or anyhting like that, id say the surest way to remove the paint chips would be to remove the heads and clean them out of the cyl. that had thier exaust valves open. Antoher way would be to just use a vaccume w/ various attachemnts to suck the chips and grime out of the exaust ports. How much grime was mixed in w/ the chips? If you only used a brush id say it would be safe to jsut vacuum them out. If you used more aggresive methods to get everythign off then the chips may have gone in deeper.

 

The engine was pretty clean, actually... there probably wasn't a lot of dirt mixed in with the paint chips. I used two kinds of wire brushes; one by hand and the other attached to a drill.

I know for a fact that there aren't any "sheets" of paint that fell inside, just little particles about as large as ground up pepper.

 

i dont know if id even worry too much... probably just try to get them out w/ a vacuum just in case. Id doubt theyd find their way into the cyls.

 

Spray some compressed air down into the holes and they should come out.

 

Thanks, guys. I tried the compressed air along with a vacuum and it looks like I got all of it out.

 

If it was paint only and not metal, I'd expect it to burn up without problems. Just my .02