What's the best way to block the water jacket holes in a block when scraping off the old head gasket material? The last thing I want to do is lose a paper towel in a water jacket.:icon_pani

Put the engine on an engine stand, turn it so the deck surface is straight up and down (engine on it's side), scrape away with a putty knife and then vacumm the holes with a shop vac. If it's still in the car you just have to be real careful and then go over the holes with a shop vac.

Steve

I used wadded twisted paper towels surrounded by saran wrap.

What's with the generic avatar, Mosesatm? Your creative self taking a break?

Thanks for the replies. One side is all clean and shiny! I'll get to the other side tomorrow.

Steve, the engine is still in the car.

On last year's road trip it was using a quart of oil every day, (around 600 miles) and it smelled exhausty so I ran a vacuum test and the it indicated worn valve guides. I pulled the heads and took them in to Bill's engine guy for a rebuild. Should have them back this week!