Should I be worried about coolant potentially in the cylinders?

[bigfry]

Pardon my words, car talk is not one of my native languages.

I had coolant leaking significantly around the intake manifold, and separately a small leak from the radiator on my 2002 EB. Monday night I followed a YouTube video to take off the manifold (bad gaskets easily observed, but hard to tell if there were any cracks in the assembly itself). Even though I had made *my* best efforts to drain the system, there was still enough coolant in there that when I pulled out the assembly some coolant splashed into a few of the valve "chambers". It was late enough at night that I didn't have access to a wet vac, but used paper towels to sop up as much out as I could. Then I stuffed some towels into all the openings and called it a night.

Tuesday night I got a wet vac, cleaned the area as best I could, and vacuumed out the valve chambers. To paraphrase my coworker - some of the valves were probably open, and if so coolant would have gotten into the cylinders. I looked at everything and the valves all look like they're in the same position, which looks closed to me.

What's the easiest way I can be sure everything is clear and safe to put back together?

Again, sorry if I got any terminology wrong.

 

[ChrisOIFdoc]

I wouldn't worry about it. What's in there is minimal at best, and what is in there will quickly turn to steam and leave through the exhaust valves.

 

[Flexpedition]

How much was wet vac'd out? Also wouldn't worry about a splash.
If it were more of a big gulp, you could turn the engine by hand a few rotations before actually running it.

 

[bigfry]

The net amount vacuumed out was not much. From what I could see #1 and #4 had the most visible in them. Before stopping Monday night there was maybe 1/4" - 1/2" left visible in #1 chamber, and #4 I couldn't get a good angle on to look in, but the first couple paper towels came out wet.

 

[stamp11127]

Let's look at it as a worse case scenario, a few cylinders had a bunch of coolant drop in it. If it isn't removed you will have hydrolock which is rough on the internal parts and starter to say the least.
You can rotate the crankshaft clockwise with a socket and breaker bar by hand to see if the rotation stops. If it does then remove the spark plugs, which gives the coolant a way to leave the cylinders and suck what you can out of them. Continue rotating and removing the coolant, replace the plugs when finished observing the torque specs (very important on these).

 

[bigfry]

Let's look at it as a worse case scenario, a few cylinders had a bunch of coolant drop in it. If it isn't removed you will have hydrolock which is rough on the internal parts and starter to say the least.
You can rotate the crankshaft clockwise with a socket and breaker bar by hand to see if the rotation stops. If it does then remove the spark plugs, which gives the coolant a way to leave the cylinders and suck what you can out of them. Continue rotating and removing the coolant, replace the plugs when finished observing the torque specs (very important on these).

Clockwise - got it.

Is it supposed to be smooth rotation, or like pulling a lawn mower starter where it alternates between easy and hard spots?

I can't throw off any timing or anything by just turning it several revolutions with everything disconnected?

Finally, the crankshaft is a big wheel below the fan/water pump?

 

[stamp11127]

That big wheel is the harmonic balancer - what you have removed at this point doesn't effect the timing between the cams and crank.
There will be times when individual cylinders are building pressure so you will have to put some extra effort into turning the crank. If it hydrolocks - it stops, period.

If you remove all the spark plugs it doesn't build compression so it would be considerably easier to turn - you can use the starter to bump the engine also instead of turning by hand. Any coolant in the cylinders will shoot out of the plug hole though - rather quickly.

 

[bigfry]

Alright, I'll give it a try tonight as it sits. I'm paranoid about the spark plugs, and they were just replaced a couple thousand miles ago, so I'd rather leave them alone for now.

 

[bigfry]

I think I'm good. I would guess I went four or so full rotations (from 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock twice per rotation) without anything more than some hissing from the valves and regular resistance build-up/release.

Thanks all!