Made a mistake--sand in engine

[z1 zonly]

I'm wrapping up a VH45DE swap into a Z32. I started several years ago by attempting to build a rear sump pan. At one point I sandblasted the pan. I thought I had cleaned it as well as I could before mockup, but it still dusted a bit of sand into the bottom end.

Fast forward several years and I'm finishing up the swap, this time with a stock VH oiling system. I sealed the pan tonight (no rebuild--this is a good condition engine), and cleaned up any foreign debris as well as I possibly could. I still have a lump in my throat that this could be a big problem. Is there anything I can do to alleviate this?

The only ideas I've had are to fill the engine with mineral spirits and turn it over with the starter several times before draining it and filling it with oil. Or filling it with cheap oil, run it at idle for 30-60 seconds, then change the oil and filter. Is it even going to matter?

Definitely screwed this one up .

[Towncivilian]

Sand particles are fairly large, no? Shouldn't most of them be caught by the oil filter fairly quickly? I'd just do several very short oil changes with the cheapest oil/filter you can find - but get the oil to temperature both times to ensure flow through the oil filter. Oil is too thick at ambient temperature to pass through the filtering media so the filter operates in bypass.

[b20vtechb]

your oil pump will be taking a beating....

[AZhitman]

I'm guessing anything there is going to stay low in the pan. Plus, there's a screen on the pickup. Might be wise to throw an extra piece of finer mesh screen over the pickup head and secure it with a SS ziptie, at least until you've done a couple oil changes. I wouldn't stress over it.

[z1 zonly]

Eh, the pickup tube screen is like catching marbles in a chain link fence.

I'm feeling less stressed about it at this point. I picked up some cheap oil and will do a change after the first few heat cycles before putting the good stuff in. Thanks for the suggestions!

[elwesso]

I really don't think it will be that big of an issue. If you got it visually clean that's about all you can ask for. I'd be a lot more concerned if you opened the entire engine rather than just taking off the pan.

[DRFTBLD]

I agree with Wes... Not a big deal. Change your oil a couple of times and you will be good to go.

However I dont agree with those who said to use cheap filters. For the first time use a cheap one. Then change the oil and use a decent one so that it catches more and then change it again and put on your propper set up. IMHO