best way to clean block

ok my block is in serious need of some cleaning. so besides getting it hot tanked what do you guys use to clean your blocks?

Get it hot tanked, there is no easier, cheaper, or better way to clean a block. Having everything thouroughly cleaned in a hot tank is the best way to get everything clean enough to be able to inspect everything for cracks and evidence of previous machine work. You have to know for sure what you have before you can build what you want.....

other way to clean a block other than hot tanking is a pressure washer, pyrolitic oven, tumbler and bead blast.... problem with that is that it takes a lot more time than hot tanking, and once you've bead blasted you gotta thourly clean it out to make sure theres no beads of glass left in the oil and water jackets

My machine shop guy, who just happens to be an old hot rodder, told me that hot tanking is really the best way to go. They are now very restricted by the good ole EPA as to what chemicals they can use, but even with less effective stuff, hot tank is the way to go. My big-inch ('76) Cadillac was a clogged up rusty mess when I took it to him and it was absolutely clean when I got it back.

Incidentally, if anybody in the Fort Worth area would like his name and address, send me a PM and I'll be glad to give it to you.

Jim

the blast with bead and a oven job work good there is draw back to all of them hot tanks will not take rust off and the epa looks down on them with a oven and a blast you have to get all the bead out and it works on the lifter bores. jet washer do good but has it limits. what i do is jet wash wire wheel run a gally brush thru it and wash it again. on heads i wash them in my jet washer dry them bead blast the ports and blow out a wash . so washing takes a lot of time . thing get wash many times before i put thing together. so i used wd40 on the block this will holds down the dust . wire wheel with a cup wheel on a small 4 1/2 angle grinder in side and out and then its gets a bath