I cleaned my case by pressure washing, soda blasting and re-pressure washing. Came out pretty clean, but not clean enough for my liking.
Tonight I mounted each case half to the engine stand for a detailed cleaning.
I cleaned the head stud threads using a homemade thread chaser made from 2 of the used dilvar head studs:
I also scraped out most of the old sealant where the case through bolts and perimeter bold pass (flat head screwdriver with sharp edges). This helped the case mating quite a bit - previously the case halves went together rather tight, and once together, they didn't want to separate again. There was quite a bit of sealant in outer edges of the perimeter holes.
Additionally, I cleaned up the through bolt holes and oil passages (HF sells a great engine cleaning brush kit for ~$15). I brushed, sprayed with carb cleaner and then punched a Kimwipe through the holes where I could. I found my bendable magnet worked as a great bore punch to push a Kimwipe through the holes; similar to this:
Lots of black stuff on the Kimwipes with first pass...
Finally, I rotated each case half 1/4 turn to to get a good view that allowed detailing inside and out. I wasn't too concerned with how the outside of the case looked - clean was the objective...
Case halves are clean and ready for my next step:
Enough for one night.
Gordo