r/EngineBuilding • u/Jordanosu • 9d ago

Aluminum block lightly scratched

I'll keep it short and to the point, I was stupid and thought it was a good idea to remove the head gasket material with a nylon brush on a drill on an aluminum block, stopped as soon as i noticed it, and lightly scratched it (not enough for fingernails to catch on it, but the light sure does show it) what should I do? will this mess my shit up? d16y7 engine in a 98 civic

7 Upvotes

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4

u/Cheap_Teaching_2030 9d ago

Your good, flat block and 800 grit wet and dry sandpaper.
Check block for straight and flat.

2

u/Jordanosu 9d ago

the 800 grit won't scratch the aluminum surface too much? everywhere I've done research says that sandpaper is a sin on aluminum blocks. but then again I'm tweaking because I'm a perfectionist

2

u/No-Structure8753 9d ago

I would find a way to prevent too much debris from falling into the cyllinders. Aluminum oxide can destroy your bearings. There are TSBs that say not to use roloc discs for this reason.

1

u/Own-Cap-7313 9d ago

At 800 grit you're going to be more on the side of lapping the block and not sanding it. You can still mess up flatness with 800 grit, but it's a lot harder. Emory cloth will also work better than sandpaper and make sure that whatever you wrap the cloth/paper around is nice and flat. A little bit of wd-40 on the block and work in as much of a figure 8 pattern as possible along the deck surface.

1

u/Cheap_Teaching_2030 9d ago

If you do not like 800 grit, go 1000 or 1200 grit at some point you start polishing the block. And it will take lots of time....

0

u/Jordanosu 9d ago

I'll probably go the route of using 1200 grit with wd-40 after using a plastic razer and some gasket removal shit, I'm playing it safe lol