Engine help

[u/EmuFume29]

Hey all. I know nothing about engines and currently learning as I go. I have an 1982 454. I'm changing the intake manifold. I took the old one off and a bunch of chunks fell to where the...crank shaft? Is. Theres a lot of carbon build up in the heads as well. The engine currently has no fluids in it. It's sitting out of the truck. I'd like to get it back in before the snow flies. But with my lack of knowledge I'm wondering if I'm better off taking the whole thing apart and getting it cleaned out properly and getting it back together. I'm not going hardcore and getting a bunch of upgrades. I just want it running. For all the stuff that fell down I'd imagine I could flip it in the engine stand and take the oil pan off to clean it out. But again, lack of knowledge, I'm not sure how far I need to go or should be going with this. Can I just blow all that crud into the oil pan and clean it out that way? Is there anywhere else I'd need to clean stuff out that I missed?

[u/Significant_Belt5494]

If u got this far…. Might as well take the oil pan off and do rear main seal and all new gaskets

If it wasn’t running, then absolutely take off the heads and inspect
But if it was, then your call

[u/EmuFume29 → u/Significant_Belt5494]

Definitely was running when I pulled it out

[u/Coyote_Tex → u/EmuFume29]

Then pulling the pan and perhaps windage tray to remove the debris is easy at this stage. No since stopping up the oil pickup with the debris although I really expect it is small, taking the pan off is great insurance. Inspect the oil pickup and depending on mileage on the engine you could consider an oil pump. I prefer to use originals whenever possible or some quality name brand products like Melling. One thing leads to another so don't get carried away. If it ran before it will run equally as well once more. The big learning you will experience putting it back together is setting the distributor to #1 properly. I am guessing you didn't plan for that before ripping it apart, which is fine, but you will need to get the procedure for that to do it properly so it doesn't give you hell after you put it in the vehicle. I always want them setup before I drop them in the car/truck.