[jsm1847]

Just discovered upon turning the crank to my sitting 350 that it wouldn’t turn. So I bought a small camera, stuck inside the spark plug holes and guess what? Mud daubers.
I DO NOT want to remove the heads AGAIN, but if I have to, I will. The engine has fresh head gaskets on it, unfired.
Im thinking about vacuuming and compressed air blowing to get it out, but I’m sure some residue may stay. Thoughts?

 

[ExcellenceAuto]

Noooo!!!
Those little jokers have ruined many a stored engine. (Among other things...)

You would be better off taking it apart, and starting over. That mud is usually very fine sand particles, which will destroy every moving surface very quickly.

Others know more than me, but I have seen it happen on accident, and it went downhill fast!

 

[jsm1847]

Noooo!!!
Those little jokers have ruined many a stored engine. (Among other things...)

You would be better off taking it apart, and starting over. That mud is usually very fine sand particles, which will destroy every moving surface very quickly.

Others know more than me, but I have seen it happen on accident, and it went downhill fast!

Dang it. Ok

 

[jsm1847]

Noooo!!!
Those little jokers have ruined many a stored engine. (Among other things...)

You would be better off taking it apart, and starting over. That mud is usually very fine sand particles, which will destroy every moving surface very quickly.

Others know more than me, but I have seen it happen on accident, and it went downhill fast!

So just for the record, you’d pull heads and clean all out or pull pistons too?

 

[ericnova72]

Yeah, it's got to come apart.
Mud Dauber is just that... plain old fine grit dirt mixed with bug saliva to make mud to build the cocoon with.

i wouldn't expect to need to remove the pistons as you can move them away from the cocoon a bit before scraping the nest out.
Fresh build though, no ring ridge to deal with, just more time and of course another pan gasket.

 

[BogiesAnnex1]

These wasps have even crashed jet liners by building nests in pitot tubes that were left uncovered when the aircraft was sitting. This plugging air pressure impact to sensors and instruments. More than one unwary crew that didn’t follow procedure found themselves in deadly danger. Thus the important call out on the take off run of tge airspeed indicator being “alive”. I you don’t see that needle move or the speed display come up a few seconds after starting the roll you need to pull the throttles back and get on the binders or face extinction.

So your best bet here is take it apart and clean it. Good reason to use suitable plugs and tight covers when storing engines.


Bogie

 

[2old2fast]

A contractors trash bag & some duct tape can save a bunch of trouble ..

 

[johnsongrass1]

Id leave the heads on it, use a brass something and break up the nest through the plug hole, suck it out with a shop vac. If it's close to fire, I might even wash it out with water and suck that out, then fire it within a few minutes or so.

Daubers eat spiders, I don't mind either bug however I HATE where they choose to make nests. Especially when when you grab a socket, it doesn't fit, so you grab the next biggest one on the tree, it doesn't fit and grab the next one and it doesn't fit only to find a nest IN the sockets. SO ANNOYING.

 

[2old2fast]

OK here's something for you all to cringe in horror . Back in the bad old days , when cleaning up the deck during a valve job , we used to grab a sanding block with some 80 grit & make the deck " pretty" . Then grab the air hose & blow the crap out of the cylinders , this was standard practice .
Got mud daubers , open a valve , blow the crap out the spark plug hole ,repeat as necessary ! 150# of air pressure will knock most of the crap out of there ! Direct from 40 - 50 years ago !

 

[ExcellenceAuto]

That's 2 solid votes for leave the heads on.
As long as you get most of it out. Can't get it all out anyway, without a complete teardown.

 

[Ray Bell]

Living in a land where BMC engines were once prolific...

A dry-humoured friend of mine once said of wasps, "They are so stupid! Anyone who makes his home in A B-series stud hole just can't be smart!"

I would vote, by the way, for the 'open the valve and blow it out via the plug hole' option, use a small fitting on the air hose so you can move the 'draft' about in there and get into all the corners.

But it has to be asked, "How come it was stored with no plugs in it?"

 

[jsm1847]

Living in a land where BMC engines were once prolific...

A dry-humoured friend of mine once said of wasps, "They are so stupid! Anyone who makes his home in A B-series stud hole just can't be smart!"

I would vote, by the way, for the 'open the valve and blow it out via the plug hole' option, use a small fitting on the air hose so you can move the 'draft' about in there and get into all the corners.

But it has to be asked, "How come it was stored with no plugs in it?"

It wasn’t really stored and I had no clue I would have these problems. Rookie mistakes.

 

[Ray Bell]

You really can't leave an engine without plugs in it...

Dust, water, anything can damage it.

 

[jsm1847]

 

[jsm1847]

Am I able to reuse shim gaskets? I haven’t fired on them…they are fresh. I have read both yes and no. 🤷🏻‍♂️