Hi,

I have a question. I was cleaning the oil pan mating surface and front and rear china wall with a dremel wire brush and the brush started to fall apart. the engine is out on a stand with heads on and cam out and I have inspected this in every way with mirrors, lights and an inspection camera and have found a very minor amount of bristles. should I worry about a few stray small bristles? will my filter catch them?

thanks

 

i would re-wash the engine

 

how would you wash it with the rotating assembly and heads on?

 

I was thinking about dumping oil in so it could flush whatever is left out and using a shop vac with micro attachments

 

I once had a single wire bristle from a brush run thru a Pontiac oil pump, got stuck in the pressure relief valve and caused a little to no oil pressure condition. Do your best to get it all out of there, perhaps a telescoping magnet tool could help.

 

I have used all of my magnet tools including my telescoping one. I think most of it was in the oil galley because I have yet to find one on the bottom end. I will tell you that the inspection camera is probably the best investment ive made

 

in the future, razors and those rubber bristle disks are the best to remove old gaskets. the problem you are having is the exact reason wire brushes and cookies should not be used.

 

I would pull the heads off and rotating assembly out and wash the block and all parts. You may get lucky and it'll all end up in the pan, but if you aren't lucky...

 

These bristle disks are the ABSOLUTE WORST thing you could use on an engine!!

GM even wrote a service bulletin about NOT using these to clean gasket surfaces because the tiny little shavings can fill your engine with debris that will destroy bearings. Do NOT use these disks to clean gasket surfaces.

 

Here is the bulletin I mentioned...
00-06-01-012E: Use of Surface Conditioning Disks When Cleaning Engine Gasket Sealing Surfaces and/or Reused Engine Parts

 

Those little wire wheels that Dremel makes are JUNK. I cleaned up some bolts with one once. I had more than a dozen wires stuck in the sleeves of my shirt when I was done. And if I didn't wear safety squints I'm certain there would have been a trip to the ER somewhere midway through the job to pull one out of my eyeball. Never EVER EVER use that tool. For ANYTHING. EVER!

Razor scraper as clean as possible and do the rest with a hand held wire brush. NOT from Harbor Freight. Something that'll do a decent job holding onto it's bristles. Not all wire brushes are made the same!

 

the only thing I would ever use would be a razor or those razor like gasket scrapers being very careful to keep the razor on an angle and not gouge the surface. they do the job perfectly without a need for a wire brush or any gimmicks

 

The nylon brushes are terrible I agree! They throw TONS of dust. I tested some on gasket surfaces in our machine shop and they actually remove material unlike a wire wheel. I only use them for stripping and prepping non critical surfaces now

 

that bulletin may be right, but i have used those disks on quite a few engine rebuilds with no negative side affects that i can see.

i am not doubting what is said in there, but im curious if that bulletin was posted due to the dust interfering with the extremely tight tolerances on newer engines. you would think if this was a problem all along they wouldn't have waited til 2014 to release it. just a thought

 

The 2014 date indicates the E revision date, this bulletin originally came out in 2000 and that 2000 version replaced bulletin 87-61-24 which appears to have been released around 1998. It's possible that your builds are looser than new engines, or that you're very meticulous in cleaning after you use them, or that you're really lucky
From what I know about it, GM continued to see engine failure after head gasket or intake gasket repairs and when engines were returned and analyzed, foreign debris similar to those disks was found in the engines. Their response was to instruct not to use such tools and explained why with that bulletin.

 

thanks for the additional information on that, proved my theory wrong! ya learn something new everyday.

 

Thanks guys, im having an engine builder disassemble my engine and clean and reassemble for peace of mind. Maybe even do some Dyno testing.

 

I have been using the surface conditioning disks for decades, and have never had a problem. If you use the correct disk, for the material you are working with, it won't be removing the metal, just the crap ON the metal. If you are working on an aluminum block/heads, then yeah, I would be REAL careful about using any variety of power tool to clean them up.

You also have to take care to prevent as much of the debris as possible from going where you don't want it, and then be very thorough in cleaning up when you are done.

 

I agree, the problem lies with people not being aware of how much debris it creates, how abrasive that debris is, or not understanding how/when to use any given tool. I'd have no problem using it on a block or part I've taken off and will be washed before being reassembled (and I have used them), but like you say, you've gotta have the right tool for the job.