[legion]

I just did a whole top-end gasket job on a marine Chevy 350. We used the scotch-brite pads that a picture is posted of above. They are plastic and minimally abrasive. Still, be careful to keep them perpendicular to the mating surfaces.

It took my father-in-law and I 11 hours to clean up the engine (so 22 hours of labor). I'd expect a 4-cylinder engine to take roughly half the time. We did everything though, cylinder head, top of block, intake and exhaust manifolds.

I've been known to use a plastic putty knife on aluminum motorcycle engines...