I really screwed the pooch, I guess.

[nitrometal]

I've been working on getting my engine and engine bay prepped & painted on my Superbird clone.  It has a 383 B with 73k miles on it and ran pretty good before I yanked it out.  I didn't have any intentions of doing a rebuild, just putting fresh gaskets in it and painting it.
Well, while I was sandblasting the engine bay I figured that I would do the engine also because it had lots of layers of peeling paint on it. I plugged it up tight and went to town on it with aluminum oxide blasting media. It looked nice and clean so I started pulling it apart to install new gaskets.  The first part I took off was a valve cover and instantly realized that I had taken the gasket off weeks ago and forgot to put it back on.  Naturally, a bunch of that aluminum oxide got inside the motor and I mean everywhere because I was flipping it over and over on the engine stand to get all the nooks and crannies.

Did i just ruin this motor?  All that blasting media has to be in just about every precision bearing surface, right?

I've started pulling everything apart now and flushing it down with parts cleaner.  It's looking a lot better but I figure I had to do permanent damage.

Am I wasting my time?

Also, I noticed this damage to the piston when I pulled the heads (I didn't do this damage).  Is the piston wasted?

[b5blue]

Crap! She ate a bolt in the past! Hows the head look? 

[Hot_Rodder]

As long as you get the motor cleaned up well, throw new bearings in, make sure your rings are clean, might want to think about doing something with that piston though.... Out of all the bolts there are in a motor, I wonder which one made it's way into that chamber.... Not the best of sights IMO. After all that, I would think it should be fine, just make sure that you get it thoroughly cleaned out well.

[nitrometal]

Crap! She ate a bolt in the past! Hows the head look? 

That's what was weird, that cylinder head and valves looked fine.  Not a mark on them.  Strange, huh?

[nitrometal]

As long as you get the motor cleaned up well, throw new bearings in, make sure your rings are clean, might want to think about doing something with that piston though.... Out of all the bolts there are in a motor, I wonder which one made it's way into that chamber.... Not the best of sights IMO. After all that, I would think it should be fine, just make sure that you get it thoroughly cleaned out well.

That doesn't sound like that much damage.  Maybe it's not as bad as I think.   

[Hot_Rodder]

maybe someone switched that head out at some point perhaps? And maybe since the piston wasn't damaged enough, they didn't worry with replacing it.... Who knows, other than the person that it happened to whenever....

[bull]

Wow, I'd be real leery about putting that thing back together without at least a major cleaning and new bearings. Even with all the gaskets in place it's a bad idea to media blast an engine you plan on running. I wouldn't want high pressure grit flying anywhere near an assembled engine.

[b5blue]

The head was changed then...you can even see thread marks on that piston! You need to check the cylinder walls for scoring. In a way it was lucky you found this, all be it not happy news it is a concern to sort out now rather then after the car was finished! Good Luck...

[Matthan]

Make sure you motor is clean before you put it back together!!!!

[frederick]

I had a friend with an engine he blasted.
Cleaned it and put it togheter; engine had to come out real soon with bearing damage caused by the grid.
Went from std to maximum undersize bearings to clear things up.
Then he hat it hot tanked twice to get all the grid out.
No luck engine was loosing oil pressure again in less than 50miles.
Now he has a new block and cut a hole in the old block to prevent anyone from using it.

Sorry to be so grim.
You will have to clean that engine real well and make sure every single grid particle is gone.

[The70RT]

I wouldn't worry about the piston since it happened long ago and ran fine all this time. As far as the media....that stuff will easily pass through the sump then into the pump where it will get pulverized then to the filter. If it gets pass the filter 

[nitrometal]

I talked to a few guys around town that work on motors and I can trust their opinions.  One of them actually did the same thing (in his younger, foolish years) (I'm not so young anymore but I am foolish!) 

They feel that no serious damage was done and that I need to do a complete teardown, hot tank and flush everything. Replace all bearings and check the specs and see what is worn out, there's bound to be some anyway with 70k+ miles.

Oh well, I was planning on a cleanup, put in fresh gaskets that are easy to replace, paint it up all purdy and pop it back in. Now I'll be doing a major rebuild and keeping my fingers crossed.

Thanks for all the advice.

Live & Learn.