what is recommended for cleaning the deck of the block and how clean must it be?

 

Brake cleaner and a lint free cloth works well. You want it as clean and smooth as you can get it. the smoother and flatter it is, the better your head gaskets will seal.

 

Use the blue shop towels like they sell at autozone..

Don't use those red rags, that's ghetto and you'll have lint all through your engine, oil pump, pick up screen etc...

I cleaned a pick up screen and used needle nose pliers to remove a thin layer of that red lint off it..

Use a plastic scraper on the block so it won't dig into the aluminum..

Make sure no coolant is in the head bolt holes before torquing the bolts or else say bye bye to the block..

Cover up the lifter galleys so no gasket trash gets Inside..

And depending on what time of day you do this and location, I recommend doing it early in the morning when there is little to no wind that can kick up dust and dirt..

 

ok thanks.

 

And the deck should be fairly clean, any raised spots will cause problems with the new head gasket sealing properly..

And wipe down the head surface and block surface with rubbing alcohol and let dry to get up oil and grease residue from your hands handling everything.. Install the gasket dry, make sure the head dowels are in the block to align the heads.. Sometimes they get stuck in the old heads..

 

X2 on everything Burken01 said

 

I used small plastic ice scraper and then some super fine grit sand paper. I made sure to tape off all the coolant passages to not get too much in there. I flushed my block out later anyways since everything was already off. just make sure to get a set of thread chasers for the head bolt holes and some long q tips. you wont believe how much **** is in those holes and you don't want anything in there especially coolant, it will expand and lead to possibly cracking.