I'll weigh in on the "smooth mating surfaces" matter since it comes up once in a while. The theory behind this seems to be that the head and block are sliding around on each other during heating and cooling so you want a mirror finish to let the head gasket slide uniformely. I don't think that's what Rick is saying here, but I wanted to clarify some recent posts on it.
Consider what's being proposed for a second before you buy into that being for sliding purposes. A head is bolted down with a total clamping force of - what - ten thousand pounds? The gasket also has a tacky coating on both contact faces. As in grippy - especially when subjected to all that clamping pressure. The plasticky coating helps maintain sealing against gases and fluids, and it also allows for some slight movement of the two surfaces due to expansion and contraction. When I say movement, it's not actual movement as what's happening is that ALL the metal is moving in ALL directions and the movement is not actual 'movement' like we think of two things moving against each other. So the elastic coating means there's a bit of give to the head gasket structure that would not be there if it was all metal which would result in abrasive movements.
In my opinion, the mating surfaces should be very smooth but some light texture is allowable. I realize that's not really helpful, as 'light texture' is subjective but I want to make the point that mirror smooth is not required in order to provide a 'sliding' surface. Having said all that, a mirror surface IS a superior sealing surface because there are nearer to zero tiny little places for delamination to begin. Can't argue with that, but I don't feel it's neccessary on a low output, low compression truck engine.
My intention here is to keep folks from a panicky feeling that they did not achieve a mirror smooth mating surface, or that they will have to if they do this work. Some of what I'm posting here is information from the largest engine head shop for hundreds of miles in any direction where I had my heads serviced while off for the HG replacement.
DougM
