Cleaning an assembled head?

[DRP67207]

Hi there.

So I just pulled the head off of a spare engine to replace the cracked one that was in my truck ('81 Caddy).  It looks to be in good shape, no cracks between the valves even and not warped.  However, it does have a fair amount of carbon buildup and whatnot in the piston area and the intake and exhaust ports, etc.  Also, it's an 11mm head, so I'll be having it drilled out and the washer seats enlarged. 

So my question is this: I don't want to fully disassemble it, get the valves pulled and everything, as I'm trying to get back on the road as quickly and cheaply as possible.  What is the best way to clean the carbon and gunk off the head and get any metal shavings from drilling it out without disturbing the valves and associated bits? This is my first time getting inside one of these engines and don't want to mess anything up.

Thanks for any thoughts or advice.

[8v-of-fury]

Shop air will be your friend.

[burn_your_money]

Shop air will be your friend.

Yep, and a wash tank

[theman53]

Rags and brake clean and elbow grease and a parts washer

[rs899]

old stale gasoline works well as solvent.

[DRP67207]

Thanks.  I decided to just pull the valves and get everything cleaned up well and replace the valve seals while I'm in there, so less of a worry of stuff getting lodged in there and causing trouble down the road.

[R.O.R-2.0]

since i have access to a hot tank at school, that is usually my best freind when i need to clean some old dirty aluminum..

[burn_your_money]

Now is the time to port it. It makes a big difference.

[DRP67207]

I plan to.  I've been doing a bit of poking around on here about porting, sounds the area just above the valves is the spot to focus, right?  Take off that sharp inside corner and smooth out the airflow.  Is there a fair amount of meat in the casting around the air passages, or does one have to be really careful how far you go?  It seems like there's a fair bit of metal before you could hit the coolant passages.  Any good pictures of a sliced head?

[burn_your_money]

Here is where I ported. No cut-aways though
http://www.vwdiesel.net/forum/index.php?topic=26175.0

[R.O.R-2.0]

closest to the valve head is more important than the end of the port you can see, where the manifold mates up..

i would clean up the bowls, match the valve seats to the bowls, blend the bowls to the port a little better, and for gods sake, take that nasty sharp corner out of the port. you can re-shape the port considerably where it starts turning.. i just CLEANED UP the ports on the head im running now, and i noticed the difference..

i wanna PORT THE HELL out of my next head.

[DRP67207]

I just did this last night, was quite satisfying carving into those sharp corners and smoothing it all out.  Can't wait to see if I can feel a difference, now I just have to try to get all the little shavings out(!) and slap it on.

[burn_your_money]

Nice. Keep us posted on how you like it.

[R.O.R-2.0]

I just did this last night, was quite satisfying carving into those sharp corners and smoothing it all out.  Can't wait to see if I can feel a difference, now I just have to try to get all the little shavings out(!) and slap it on.

so, since you ported it, it should be 100% disassembled, and EASY to clean..

[DRP67207]

Yeah, just a little paranoid about some little shavings getting stuck in a corner or something and wrecking havoc down the road.  But I vacuumed it out, sprayed it down with carb cleaner and got busy with a brush and some pipe cleaners, and then spent some time alternating between a tub of hot soapy water and spraying it out with a hose, so it should be pretty good.