I went a bit further than that and because I have the TSM there's a note from AMC that if you can't torque the bolt without the crankshaft turning you can fabricate a tool that stops it from turning by holding it against the body/ground.
The spec is only 80 foot pounds, so nothing says that a modified tool can't be made that lets me do it both ways.
This is an approved method. 
Because the water pump was coming out I pulled the radiator as well and had to clean it up a bit. As the bearing drifted there was a radial mark on the fins where the fan was juuust starting to clip it and I wanted to flush and repaint the damaged area. Likewise I'm already ahead of you with the wire brush but man I should of dressed the area more because WD-40 and a brush attachment paints everything with black gunk. I left the old lifters in for now so that any crud that falls into the galleries can be vacuumed out instead of making its way deeper into the block but carbon removal was also why I am in here because there was a LOT seen on the borescope. Cylinders otherwise look okay but I'm having a hard time seeing the crosshatch, though at this point if we have to go deeper, forget it I'll probably just get the whole block rebuilt.