Last night was so long,
Now my troubles are gone,
I'm in the kitchen,
and she's purring like a kitten,
like a siren of smoke and fire,
bringing me higher,
I'm going to ride her all night long...

Hey guys! Owwwwwwww! I'm so happy. I want to say thanks for all the advice. I found these forum a wealth of info, and so I'm going to leave for now with some parting thoughts on doing this job:

Before you install your new head gasket:
- CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN. Did I forget to say clean. Acetone. Vacuum. No crud. No oil. Verrry important. I spent an extra 20 hours or so redoing the job because of my initial lackadaisicalness in polishing up the surface.

- Tap the head bold threads and I recommend new bolts if the engine's been heated. Measure your bolt's clamping height! For mine, the head plus rocker measured 140 mm. My finger tight bolt height was 137mm. I also sinned the first time by overlooking this and this wisdom was won with back pain and tears.

- Use quality parts. Don't cheap out over a few bucks. Not worth it.

- My personal and well pondered opinion is that a head/block job is no place for any of that liquid gasket crap. These are graphite coated, engineered gaskets. If you put that goop on there, it sort of begets the point of having a graphite coating doesn't it?

Any how, cheers! I'm over and out to enjoy that sunshine today. Fingers crossed for 1000 miles...then I know I'm home.

 

good for you. it sucks to do the job twice.

 

great work! the satisfaction of doing the job yourself is immeasurable. hope it all stays together!