I appreciate everyone's comments, but there's still a point of confusion for me. With the lifter cover off, there's a fair amount of sludge stuck on the block wall just above the lifters. I'd really like to clean that all up too, but since the lifters, cam, crank, etc are still in the block, will washing that area do damage to those parts? The oil pan is off, so I'm thinking that anything that got down into that area should just flow out the bucket I have under there. What I don't is if I should avoid getting degreaser/water in those areas at all.
