What the best way to go about cleaning the block surface before bolting on the heads (without taking it to the machine shop)?

Steel wool??

 

I wouldn't use steel wool, way too many metal fibers to get into the ring grooves. I used a sharp wide flat wood chisel to scrape and then solvent to clean. Vacuum and then blow with compressed air. Once it's really clean, try a little 400 grit wet/dry sand paper (use it dry) and wipe with solvent on a clean rag. Then wipe the cylinder walls with a clean rag and very light oil. It's also a good time to clean the carbon off of the pistons. Pain in the ***, but do it anyway.

 

Its down to a bare block. Buget rebuild on my old 305 (new bearings and probably rings, oil pump, timing chain, 305 Vortec heads and an LT1 cam).

I gave it to a friend of mine and were going to drop it into his 78 Chevy truck in place of his inline 6.

 

Has it come back from the machine shop with the plugs and cam bearings out, and been rifle-brushed at the car wash with diesel fuel yet?

That's the main prep work I see it needing right now. Get the metal out of the oil passages.

 

A bare block... Oh. Then steel wool would be a good choice. I've read that a scotch bright pad can remove metal if you work it hard enough, so just be careful to remove only what you need to.

 

My block is torn down and waiting a trip to the machine shop. I'm going to take your advise and take it back after I clean it to get them to put the cam bearings in.

This is mainly for my old 305. Putting new bearings, oil pump, timing chain, vortec heads, an LT1 cam and throwing it in my buddies 78 chevy truck. He isn't taking it to the machine shop.

 

Correct zip wheel chucked in a drill makes fast work of things. I've done it with a razor scraper, gasket remover, carb cleaner and a scotchbrite pad more times than I can count, however.

ALWAYS run a chase through the head bolt threads (7/16-14 thread). You will NEVER get correct torque on the head bolts if the threads are still loaded with schmutz from the last set of head bolts you unscrewed from it. DON'T skip this step, it is critical. Probably more critical than getting every last crumb of gasket off the deck surface.

 

 

As well. I think scraper/chisel, then some scotchbrite and brake kleen. A tap through the bolt threads is good. A "thread chaser" is hard to find, so I used a tap. Might be a good idea to use head bolt washers too. Mr gasket part, like $4.

 

Great!!!

Forgive me for nagging, but I'd hate to see it go bad a second time.

Those Roloc or Regalite pads, that you can put in a drill or a die grinder, are GREAT. Just be careful with the more abrasive ones, not to leave a "thumbprint" in your castings. They can be pretty aggressive.

To keep stuff out of the cyls, just use duct tape, and newspaper or plastic, to cover them up during the procedure. Same for the lifter valley and whatever else is exposed at the time.