So, nothing is going back into the engine if it’s scruffy. There are various ways of making it clean, but the varnished on oil from the engine front cover I very much doubt would clean up in a parts-washer.
So, to the soda blaster again.
Here is the before-and-almost-after picture.
Fantastic results. I had my bits in a parts washer for a long time and thay did not come up that well.
It’s dirt cheap as well. £100 for the blaster and the medium is £25 for a 25kg bag. I haven’t finished a bag yet.
And it did a good job of getting the gasket out of the channel