(As seen in my Toyota MR2 Build Thread)
Have a nasty gasket you need to scrape off, but don't want all that crud in your engine? Of course you do–you're on this forum!
Fortunately, there's a quick and easy way to do things, and it won't result in a ruined engine. It's called... SHAVING CREAM! 
Buy some super normal shaving cream, then fill every nook and cranny with it. Like so:
Then, scrape whatever needs to be scraped, and let all of the crud fall onto the cream. Once you're done, vacuum every thing out with a shop vac, and the cream (and the crud) will magically be removed.
It's probably a good idea to still do an oil change a few miles after using this trick, but it does eliminate hours and hours of disassembly and cleaning on a job like this.
I heard about this a couple weeks ago from a machinist I was building a wiring harness for. I honestly thought he was full of crap.
Apparently not.
Now to buy some shaving cream. (I'm bearded. So, none in the bathroom)
Rufledt
UltraDork
6/7/16 10:33 a.m.
Dusterbd13 wrote:
Now to buy some shaving cream. (I'm bearded. So, none in the bathroom)
This.
That's a good idea, beats futilely trying to us tape and paper and crap to catch the junk.
Someone mentioned it in a stripped spark plug hole thread the other day as well. I don't remember who, but it went something like this.
Set the cylinder at BDC, fill with shaving creme, tap hole, rotate engine to expel shaving creme and shavings.
Now I guess I'll have to get a can of regular shaving cream for the garage. I use gel.
That would just add to the questions I get when people see what I have in the garage. What works very well as a lubricant when working with rubber seals is a lubricant designed for use in a different room in the house, $ex lube. Spray with water and it gets slick again when starting to dry out. Is water soluble and don't damage rubber. Now explain why that is in your toolbox. 
In reply to wlkelley3:
Yep, I have a tube of that stuff in my tool chest. Had to explain it to my son who was a BMW tech at the time.
