Removing sludge from a pulled motor?

[hyppi]

Last fall I bought a 1978 Cougar with a 351 Windsor from an old man who had it sitting in his backyard. Got it for 200$ but the engine was pulled cause he blew the trans a year back or so. After getting it all home and pulling the valve covers off to see how things were I noticed that everything was covered in sludge.

So I guess here is the question. How can i remove this gunky mess short of dunking it in a 500 gallon vat of carb cleaner? I have been trying to find some info online but everything I find requires the motor in the car and running different fluids through it to help thin out and get it down to the pan for removal. Some stuff was like kerosine & 30W, trans fluid, synthetic oil, enigne flush, etc.

Ideally I would like to clean/regasket the motor, nothing fancy, just stock. Compression tester looks good and everything move well when i turn the crank. But is it worth trying to clean, or should i tear it all down and just spring for a chemical bath and total rebuild?

Any thoughts are much apreciated. The body is in excellent shape and I'd love to keep the original motor. Seems the previous owner knew more about waxing than oil changes but what ya gonna do. 200$ for a beautiful 2 ton land yacht was something i couldnt pass up.

heres some pics i took to give you a better idea as to what I'm dealing with.



This is the inside of one of the valve covers.



thx
-chris

[2.2 Straight six]

At work we use Petrol (gasoline) and diesel as degreasers. sit the parts in a tub of petrol and leave them for a couple days. cuts thorugh it pretty well.

petrol and a scrubbing brush is very effective. you'll want an inhalator thingy. the fumes smell nice at first, but screw with your head after a while. and get some washing up gloves. petroleum products are carcinogenic. (cancer-causing)

[Steel]

Yeah, Gasoline, or Kerosene will work well at that, or if you have access to a parts cleaning bin, then you'd be set. You'd probably do the motor a lot of good to clean out the oil passages all around and replace the oil pump as well. And if you replace all the gaskets and such, run a good synthetic through it and you'll not have to worry aobut sludge again!