Personally, I would seal the top of the block especially over the piston tops and plug the draft tube hole,fuel pump opening and the distributor hole. I would put the lifter cover back on sans gasket.
Then use Gunk or similar cleaner, scrub brushes, power wash or just a strong hose water stream. Let it air dry and maybe clean again if necessary. Once it's dry you can spray paint it with easy to buy high temp paint in an aerosol can. But, after complete assembly run fresh oil for awhile and drain that, than add new oil. Anyway, that's what I did.
Last edited by DrewP; 07/09/2013 4:21 PM.
