Is this normal for a 500 mile engin

[89-W-Body-Regal]

I did something stupid yesterday. I sprayed down both heads with brake cleaner because they were dirty and I also got some in the valley a little bit. I know brake cleaner drys out seals and causes lots of white oxidation when it drys. A Little bit trail of brake cleaner entered the valley too after I sprayed the heads. I wiped it real quick because I didn’t want the seals to dry out.

I didn’t get any down the port holes where the valve steam sits thank god. But I got to use a shop vac because some plastic and wire installation got down in the valves when I was replacing wire connectors.

I kinda thought afterwards I might have dried out the valve train or dry the seals out after using brake cleaner to clean the heads because I noticed there white oxidation on the valve train after the brake cleaner dry. My friend told me to coat them down with oil real good so it wouldn’t further dry anything out and it will be fine. I have to drain the oil out anyway again because some coolant got down in the engine when removing the intake. So all the oil will drain out of it by time I drain the oil out.
 

I poured half a quart of oil over the valley down into the camshaft, on the rocker arms and pushrods in the valve train. Is everything ok? It’s all lubricated and nothing looks dry anymore. 

I am seeing very light surface rust on one of the rockers now. Is this something to worry about now? It’s only at 500 miles. I changed the break in oil at 489 miles. I haven’t driven this car since last October because my intake manifold cracked so I had to remove the intake to replace it and replace the gasket again. I don’t want the brake cleaner to further cause problems to my engine drying out seals ect now. I thought coating the valley making the oil run down to the camshaft and coating valve train would be ok.

 

Keep in mind I had the intake off since last year but I placed the intake manifold back over it so it wouldn’t be exposed. Yesterday I cut off the intake gasket. So now I just have to replace the intake gasket. I couldn’t do it all these month’s because of the weather. Now it’s getting nice out so I can fix it and work on it.

Edited Sunday at 06:22 PM by 89-W-Body-Regal

[White93z34]

Looks great to me. Spent awhile trying to see what you were talking about. that tiny bit of surface rust I cannot imagine will hurt anything.

just an aside. The high res pictures really show how crudely the rocker arms were made. the top edge is really something you can see how they just cleaved the steel when they were stamping them. at least they got the surface finish right where it matters.

[Schurkey]

On 3/30/2025 at 1:06 PM, 89-W-Body-Regal said:

 I know brake cleaner drys out seals and causes lots of white oxidation when it drys. A Little bit trail of brake cleaner entered the valley too after I sprayed the heads. I wiped it real quick because I didn’t want the seals to dry out.

You're being paranoid.  Random and light brake cleaner overspray is relatively harmless.

 

On 3/30/2025 at 1:06 PM, 89-W-Body-Regal said:

I kinda thought afterwards I might have dried out the valve train or dry the seals out after using brake cleaner to clean the heads

Nope.  MAYBE you washed the oil off of 'em.