Let's say I am a total cheapskate and I have a greasy old block I want to get cleaned. Let's say I don't want to pay the $100 it would cost to have a machine shop hot tank it. The block is currently bare. Can I strip it down, bolt on a head and valve cover and oil pan, plug the holes, and sandblast the outside of the block or should I quit being cheap and just get it hot tanked?

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

They want $100 to hot tank a block? Ouch. At least that cleans the block inside and out. I'm scared of getting and leaving abrasives in the block. Oven cleaner and a scrub brush is what I'd do for an assembled engine.

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Joshua

Yeah, that's what I figured. $100 gets me hot tanked, new cam bearings installed, and the valve cover and oil pan and oil pickup cleaned. Machine shop prices are crazy up here in Tacoma.

The block is bare with no rotating assembly or external items in or on it. It is just rusty and greasy. I will probably just bite the bullet and get it hot tanked.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

$100.00 for cleaning the block, sheetmetal and installing the new cam bearing is a great price, just do it.
Here in the SF Bay area, $100.00 get's you the cleaning only, installation of the cam bearing is another $75.00
DD

Yikes! OK- I'll quit whining and just do it.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Do watch the cost of the cam bearings... shops tend to mark those up a bunch.
DD

Where are you getting the work done? Auburn Auto Machine does some nice work, but they aren't cheap either, just to give you another close option.

http://auburnautomachine.com/

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'63 Valiant 200 2 door hardtop, 225 stock rebuild with super six set up, carter bbd, hei mod, 3spd manual on the column

I take all my machine work that I can't do myself to Bud's Machine out in Lakewood: www.budsmachine.com

Bud is a guy who has been building hot rods since the 50s and has the pompadour to prove it. He is very nice and very knowledgable. However, he is a guy who has the sign on the wall that says:

Fast, cheap, well done. Pick two.

And he means it. The local Dodge dealers use him to do all their repair work. He has customers around the world and actually builds engines and ships them to places like France.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

For some reason, the shop I use gives me real good pricing on slant six work. But $100 doesn't sound bad for cleaning, bearings and plugs installed. Remember, the costs involved. Removing the old bearing, and plugs, loading/unloading the parts. installing the new bearings, and plugs. Then there is the cost of the machine, with maintaince, cost of the chemical, and lastly disposing of the of the old chemical, which is now hazardus waste, even if the original chemical was not.
I have two hot tanks, one for ferris metal, and one for aluminum, which I no longer use. For the small amount of cleaning I do, it is cheaper, and less hassel, to let the machine shop do it.

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Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Valiant Signet 170 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170
64 Valiant 4dr 225

If the innards are clean, Easy Off and Brillo do wonders. But a hundred bucks for hot tanking is pretty good!

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.