I personally won't use antifreeze. The stuff is nasty from a health standpoint, and cooking it overnight in a crock pot is adding a lot of carciagins to the air you breath. I used to own an lapidary store and some of my customers used it in their rock saws for a coolant and lube. The spray off the blade though was like misting it into the area where they were sawing and the skin contact wasn't healthy either. Last, the stuff is sweet to the taste and your pets love it, one time as it will kill them.

The Dawn Power Cleaner from the grocery store does an equally good job, and you can wash it down the drain when you are finished. It is ilegal to flush antifreeze down the drain or down the sewer any place I've lived in the last 15 years.

That clean up article is a very good one. In your case as you have an old work horse engine, not a crashed one, I would order up a set of bearings and replace them while you are going through the trouble. Also, if you have gaskets between the back plate and the crank case, head gaskets, O ring on the carb to crank case seal, then it would be advisable to replace these at the same time. Old gaskets are already flattened once, and the tend to stick to one surface or the other and at times both, so chances of breaking one are high. Also a head gasket needs to be replaced each time you pull a head.

Send us some photos, before and after. Have fun

Don