Halfway there.

It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it.

This is the drive side half of the crankcase. After soaking it in some degreasing solution I scrubbed all the dirt and muck off it with some stronger solvent, quickly figured out I needed a mask with breathing filters and finally got it to this stage. I think it came out quite well, especially if you look at the before photos and see how filthy it was. The good thing is, there are no stains or pitting, and underneath all that dirt, the alloy was shiny and good as new.

Tomorrow I tackle the timing/gearbox side (below, yuk) and by Thursday I should have this thing ready to go.