gunk under intake manifold

JBurch said
The gunk you see is the lack of oil changes by the previous owner, and a lot of stop and go driving where the engine never got warm and stayed warm for a while. What to do now.........?? Choices range from nothing to complete rebuild, how much money do you wish to spend?

I'm gonna catch flack over most of this......so be it

Nothing would be new intake gaskets, bolt down the intake, put the engine into the car and start an aggressive routine of oil and filter changes and a quart of Risoline at each change, hot oil can remove alot of that.

OR, get 5 gallons of kerosene, scrape what you can out, with the pan still on wash down the valley with kero, you'll find the block eventually.

OR, very carefully take the engine appart, leave the rings on the pistons, mark them (the pistons) for what cylinder they came out of, keep the cam and lifters in order, keep the bearings in order, take the block to the car wash, blast the living day lights out of it, wash down all the parts in solvent, put the engine back together.

OR, do a complete rebuild to what level you desire.

I have been there with a '78 400-4. I tried to clean the rocker area. pulled the intake, and breastplate. I pulled a pizza out of the valley. Tried changing oil, and such, but it was a supreme hassle. If I had to do it over again, I'd do what was suggested: pull intake, rocker covers, timing cover, cam and lifters, oil pan, and pickup. Remove the hood, tow the car to the quarter car wash late at night, and blast the crap out of that engine. Then clean all you can with gasoline. Then reassemble putting everything back where it came from.