Sand in Exhaust Manifold - What to Do?

[jmb23802]

Pulled the risers on my 15 year old 243-hour 4.3 GL yesterday to get a baseline on their condition. Good news is, they looked great! Bad news is, I have a little bit of sand in the exhaust manifold now.

I had to use a real fine grit sandpaper (felt almost like emery board, but it was sandpaper) to prep the gasket surface on the manifold and when I pulled the rag out of the exhaust tube of the manifold some sand granules fell down inside the exhaust tube - not much at all but there was just a little and the sand was not much bigger than dust particles with maybe 2-3 that were slightly larger but still pretty small. I was short on time so I pushed ahead and reinstalled the riser (didn't have a vacuum handy). Now I am thinking I shouldn't have done that. To be honest, I am not sure if I have a vacuum that would pull them all the way up out of the manifold or not.

On one hand, I think they will probably blow out when I fire it up, and or not be a real issue. On the other hand, what if they don't blow out and find their way into a cylinder? What do you think I should do? Really don't want to redo all the work I did and shell out cash for new riser gaskets again for something stupid like this, but if there is a high chance it is going to trash my engine then I will do what I have to do. What should I do?

 

[Grub54891]

Exhaust always blows out. It will be a non issue. It'll blow out when you run it.

 

[jmb23802]

Thanks for the reply. That was my initial thought, but then I got to thinking what happens if, let's say, the grit slid toward the back of the manifold. During startup, which could take some cranking with my carbed engine, cylinder #2 "exhausts" first up the front channel of the manifold and blows the sand in the rear channel of the manifold down on top the valve in cylinder #4 or #6, then the valve in cylinder #6 opens and dumps the sand into the cylinder - some blows back out and some gets trapped. Perhaps I am overthinking. The amount of grit involved may not even be a problem, but I suppose the only way to be sure is going to be removing the riser and vacuuming the stuff out. Being stupid is painful!! haha

 

[Scott Danforth]

Your over thinking it. You could almost drop a pound of pebbles in the exhaust manifolds and fire up the motor and it would clear itself out

 

[jmb23802]

Sounds like I don't have anything to worry about so that's what I'll do: stop worrying. Appreciate the replies.