Topic: Flushing debris from lower engine?

[Veemo]

Hello all!

With the coming of winter and the passing of good Disk Golf season I have been focusing my energy once again to my 550 build. I got tired of trying to remove the pain-in-the-ass gaskets from the upper engine pieces and gave up a while ago. Yesterday I went to Harbor Freight and picked up a set of wire wheels for die grinders, chucked the brush cup in my cordless drill (not having a die grinder) and, using low speed and very light pressure, managed to finally get good, clean gasket surfaces! they really look nice, and I managed not to gouge up the aluminum significantly (i did less damage with this than I did with other methods...). Progress!

I do have one concern. I know that I got some debris in the lower engine (to give you some perspective of what the status is everything from the cylinders up is removed, and the fully assembled lower engine is in the bike). I'm not talking hunks of anything, but there is surely some dust from the block, gaskets, and having been sitting for months in my garage as well as the PO's. Is it possible to flush this from the engine with oil, kerosene, or something along those lines? I'm thinking I would remove the oil pan and use a pump-up sprayer to really flush the inside out, but I'm sure there are many ways of doing this.

If any of you have flushed and cleaned your lower engine blocks please let me know what you did and how it worked. Thanks!

[OldSchool_IsCool]

I think you are on the right track.  You will want to use oil or some such and not compressed air which would just push the dust deeper into the engine.  You will want to make sure your oil pump pickup strainer is good.  Anything that can get passed the strainer will get picked up by the filter (in theory anyway) before it can get to the smaller orifices in the top of the engine. 

[Veemo]

Good to hear. I'm thinking kerosene, or diesel even, might be cheaper to get a couple gallons of than motor oil, and would also break up any sludge or grime that may be built up in there. plus it would be easier to put use in a sprayer.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Hudson-1-Gallon-Weed-N-Bug-Eliminator-Sprayer/1551064

this is what im thinking of using, or something similar, so I could get a little pressure rather than just pouring it in there. I pulled off the oil pan today, it all looks surprisingly clean from underneath (transmission, etc) but i know the crankshaft area has some debris, i can see it.

Would you advise a) keeping the oil pan off and letting it drain out as I flush? Or b) put it back on and fill the whole damn thing, drain, and then proceed as a)?