Get ready to shake your head at me...

[Nessism]

Throwing the head in a dishwasher is not going to get those oil galley passages clean.

If you shoot degreaser into the small oil feed passages feeding each cam bearing, the sauce will wind up inside the main galley line. Let it soak then shoot high pressure water down the same passages. I suggest you do this again and again until you are confident all the sand has been flushed out.

[bottobot]

Will do. I'm gonna pick up some heavier duty de-greaser before I pressure wash it. Do a combo attack.

[duaneage]

I soda blasted my engine, including the head and watched the baking soda melt away when I was cleaning it. Baking Soda dissolves in just about anything and isn't even hard like sand. Just washed away with simple green and water, and a little carb cleaner. I put a sprinkler on the driveway to remove the evidence.
I saw this thread on the net for airplane engines where they used glass to clean an engine and it ended up inside. Ruined a very expensive motor. And these were "professionals".

What little baking soda made it inside my engine vaporized when the oil hit it.

[platinum2]

power wash at a car wash, soap really helps blow out all oil passages as well

[Nessism]

power wash at a car wash, soap really helps blow out all oil passages as well

I agree. Don't think I would even bother to clean it before hand. Direct the blast pressure down the little cam bearing feed holes, down the outside stud passages (with the head flat against something so the water will be forced though the galley), and everywhere else.

I'd bring some WD-40 along too so you can spray down the valve guides and valve seats so they don't flash rust.

[Dakotakid]

Take along a rubber mat or two layers of cardboard to the carwash to set the head on. You really don't want it to roll over and pit the face of the head, which I sort of did once with one of my VW diesel heads.

[crapwacker]

Is this the 750 engine? If so, I have a Suzuki gasket set, if you don't have one already..

[bottobot]

Is this the 750 engine? If so, I have a Suzuki gasket set, if you don't have one already..

Yeah its the 750, but bored out to an 864. I got all the gaskets I need at the moment but thanks for the offer!

[tkent02]

Clean each hole like a gun barrel.

[bottobot]

Clean each hole like a gun barrel.

I've never cleaned a gun barrel but I assume you mean as thoroughly as humanly and machinely possible. I certainly intend to. Once I start something like this I get a little OCD. I may not always listen at first but once I learn my lesson by making a mistake, I dive right into the solutions and become very open to advice. Tomorrow is going to be degrease, pressure wash, degrease, pressure wash until I can't find any sand with a microscope. Even then after the bike is running I'll likely change the oil filter a few times for good measure.

I'm getting a really highly recommended shop to do all the valve guide work and surface planing as well as a cylinder hone and valve lapping. This bike is gonna be running like clockwork by the time I'm done.

Its been passed around quite a bit and I don't think the PO I got it from was even the dude who did all the upgrading. I do remember him mentioning how powerful it was though....

[bottobot]

I agree. Don't think I would even bother to clean it before hand. Direct the blast pressure down the little cam bearing feed holes, down the outside stud passages (with the head flat against something so the water will be forced though the galley), and everywhere else.

I'd bring some WD-40 along too so you can spray down the valve guides and valve seats so they don't flash rust.

Good call on the WD-40. I'll make sure I do that on the cylinder bores too.

[JATO]

Run it through your dish washer on the "pots and pans" cycle. Heads and cam covers are bottom drawer safe.

[bottobot]

So the stage I am at now is that I have degreased and cleaned this puppy to where I can no longer find even a granule of sand. I've spent probably close to 9 solid hours of degreasing and cleaning with a variety of solvents and pressure washing and compressed air blasting. Thanks for all the kind words of encouragement. With your help I climbed out of this whole I dug.

Tomorrow I will soda blast the heads. While I am waiting for valve guides and high quality valve seals to arrive. Then I have a date with Alec's Automotive to plane the heads to true, do the guides, lap the valve seats.

Put it back together and then we are laughing!

[Nessism]

How do you know the head needs guides? Did you measure the valve to guide clearance using the wobble test, and if so, what did you measure? New guides mandates machining the seats, so if you do that you should also cut the valves and skim the stem to assure you don't run out of shim sizes.

[four_shot]

And be prepared to spend a longer time soda blasting. Soda is a finer grit so it cuts slower.