I am preparing to get my heads back from shop, and want to clean up all the carbon and junk from the top of my cylinder block. I am worried about using a flange scraper as I do not want to scratch cylinder block. This is my first head removal & install and am just curious as to what other people have done to clean up existing gasket material, etc... Any tips, help, advice appreciated.

 

gasket scraper will work well. Just take your time and try not to get too much junk down into the coolant passages. I plugged a lot of the passages with bits of rags when I did mine a couple of weeks ago. If you do that, just remember to triple check that they've all been removed before you put the heads back on. I used a dremel tool with a brass brush to clean the tops of the pistons, too. I worked really well.