Here's another update. Just completed assembly of the short block today (Chapter 5, Sections 1-3 of Wayne's book).
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Everything went swimmingly. I was sweating a bit as I was coming close to the 45 min time that Wayne stresses a couple time in the book is the maximum time you have from application of the Locktite 574 case sealer until the last bolt is torqued. I think that time might be very conservative, tho, as about 2hrs after I had applied the Locktite, I was tossing the brush I used to spread it, and noticed that it was still very liquid.
You'll notice that my cases are not as clean as, say, my transmission cases. I did not bead blast the engine cases as I didn't want to spend 2 months trying to get every last bead out of each nook and crany. The transmission cases are very wide open with easy-to-clean passages. I was able to get the engine cases very clean (in a sanitary sense) and free of oil and debris, but I did not go the next step of polishing them and getting all the surface oxidation and stains off that would have made them cosmetically better looking.
Now its time for the heads...
Geoff