Measurements of everything before putting the head and gasket in place. Mine‘s close, I need to do some more accurate measurements. Not fully compressed head gasket is one of the theories still on my plate for my coolant-in-oil issue (there’s no obvious failure in the head gasket - possibly...
Yeah. They need to reach torque (95 ft-lbs) before bottoming out. If a lot of material is removed, they may reach bottom before enough compression keeps head gasket, et al, in place.