iamdub
Full Access Member
Just be careful. You don't have to keep it like the Ebola virus laboratory. Don't assemble your engine with the shop doors open during a wind storm. Be mindful of the crusty wire loom that can flake off and fall into sensitive places (the engine, not you- you shouldn't be mechanicing naked.)
Refer to the pics in my thread. I kept the cylinders coated with a spray of WD-40 and covered the block with a heavy duty 55-gallon trash bag when not working on it. I put the block in the bay with the heads off and cylinders wide open. I periodically blew the cylinders out. I'd rotate the crank to put the piston to the top, blow it off again then put it back down in the cylinder again to see if there was any dirty oil rings left on the cylinder wall where it reached TDC. I'd wipe it and repeat until it left a clean ring. Lifters were stored in Tupperware containers (cheap Walmart version) that held eight in each of them vertically. I submerged them in oil and used an old push rod to press each seat down a few times to purge the air out and get 'em solid before installing them. I have a blow gun with a thin needle extension that I used to blow out each head bolt hole from the bottom out. I sprayed brake parts cleaner (using the red straw) down into each head bolt hole then dried it with the blow gun needle. I put a paper shop towel around the bolt hole so anything coming out didn't spray me or the exposed cylinders. Gave it all a final blowing and wiping of the lifter and cylinder bores before reassembling.
I'm a bit extra when it comes to first starts. I used lots of assembly lube, including packing the oil pump so it'd naturally try to suck oil through the inlet. I made an oil primer, powered off my compressor, to push oil through the system while I rotated the crank until oil flowed from all rockers. I poured oil over all the rockers before installing the covers and coils. I had a little bit of pressure on the gauge when I turned the key on before even starting it. I held the pedal to the floor and cranked the engine for 2-3 cycles at ten seconds each to prime the oil system with the pump. I left the coils unplugged at the main harness connector and cranked the engine for an additional ten-second cycle to purge the air from the injectors. Then I plugged in the coils, set up my phone to record and bumped the key as normal. It fired up as if nothing had ever happened with no sputters, no ticks and immediate pressure.
I used cheap 10W-30 conventional oil (Super Tech from Walmart) for that first start. Even if you use cheap oil, you should always use a good filter. My is the K&N, but since I was changing it soon, I saved a couple bucks and used a Fram Gold. I let it come up to operating temp as I checked for leaks, checked fluids, etc. Took it around the block (about five miles here in the country) then back home to change the oil and filter. I think I did another round of the conventional Super Tech and Fram Gold for that one. Anyway, took it back out for another shakedown and ended up doing some asshattery including donuts in the parking lot of the Community Center. Did a solid burnout in the driveway in front of my shop to make sure the looseness I felt in the trans was just the new torque converter and wasn't a slipping trans. Left piles of rubber and permanent scars in the concrete. Put a couple hundred miles on it then switched to Pennzoil Platinum and K&N filter to finish out the 5K-mile OCI. Switched to Rotella T6 oil from there on out.
There's no need for chemical flushes. Those are if you're trying to dissolve gunk from an engine left in a running and driving the vehicle. Yours is open and looks really clean. Let the regular oil flow flush it. Keep it clean with good oil and regular changes and gunk won't have a chance to build up.
As for the coolant, I filled mine with distilled water and a Prestone liquid flush for the first start. Excessive, yes. I could've just used hose water. Anyway, a hundred or few miles later, I pulled the outlet hose off the radiator and let it drain while I poured in a couple more gallons of distilled through the water pump's inlet hose. Distilled water at Walmart is (or was) around $0.93/gallon at the time. I drained as much as possible of everything, including blowing it out with compressed air through a high-volume gun. Reassembled everything and filled with a 50/50 mix of Prestone concentrate and distilled water (the Dex-Cool compatible "red stuff".) and purged the system. Mixing it yourself is much cheaper than buying the pre-mixed. With pre-mix, you're paying almost the same for half the coolant.
Of course, I had to repeat the re-fill and purging less than a year later when my radiator sprung a leak.
And I'll be doing it again when I replace my water pump, which I should've done during the original engine work. 
