I'm doing some minor work on the 289, and I'm replacing the freeze plugs and the drain plugs. I see a lot of residue and junk sitting in the water passages, near the plugs, etc. How best to clean this out? I bought some of the flexible wire 'gun cleaning' brushes to do the work. Should I use any solvents with this? Or just plain water?
And how best to make sure that none of this newly loosened junk gets into my radiator once the thing gets put back together?