Hey guys I'm wondering how clean this deck has to be? I scraped it for 2 hrs with a razorblade and it's smooth but with some old graphite gasket stains is all. The lower coolant holes are a little rough around the edges but it seems all the vital sealing areas are smooth. See pics.
Bone stock rebuild.

 

When I was researching this, I read that if you can't feel it with your finger, the gasket doesn't know about it. If you have a straightedge, and run it over the surface and you can't get a feeler gauge under it, I'd say you're good to go.

EDIT: My block surface looked very similar when I put my gasket back on.

 

When we did my head gaskets we used the straight edge with a feeler gauge trick.

 

Totally normal. Scrape it with brake clean and a razor blade and as long as nothing catches with a fingernail you're good to go. Even though you have towels in the cylinders run a shop vac in them to get anything left behind.

 

Feeler gauge noted. Yeah there are a few spots that are a little rough with the finger nail around the bottom coolant holes and i scraped and scraped with the razor blade and its the best it will get.

 

i usually take a stone to the deck. you can use those rectangular knife sharpening stones. its faster if you can pull the dowels, but i know most home gamers don't have the tooling to do this. i spray wd40 on the stone every so often too.

 

This is what you would use to really clean it and commonly used by shops to clean gasket surfaces:

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b40064730/

 

IMO, this is the best method. As long as you have a good flat stone. It knocks down all the high spots and cleans and trues the deck surface.

 

I looked into these when I was prepping my block surface, but this service bulletin scared me away.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...82814-5448.pdf

There was a long thread of name calling on this website about whether or not to use those discs... which usually means that it's totally fine to use in my experience on LS1tech.

 

I can tell you imo after reading lots of material on the subject of abrasive materials getting into the motor, I decided to stick with the hard labor way of using a razor blade. If you can seal all orifices from harmful abrasives I would think using disc and sand paper would be optimal.

 

Super scraper is what I’ve been using last few years at work. It’s a carbide scrapper. They make knock off cheaper brands too. Don’t use on aluminum though.

 

Obviously, you have to be smart about it when using the discs.

 

Always someone that ruins it for everyone else

 

Don't have to be quite as smart when using a wire wheel on a drill to clean the deck. That works wonders as well.

 

Old school . If I can see the imprint of the old gasket, I'm not happy.

 

I'm gonna say these days you have to be smart even with a wire wheel 😆, if you don't buy a quality one the bristles actually come loose and can get lodged in a engine orfice or your eye!

 

I would not use a wire wheel on a block that is being repaired insitu. if not careful the wires can get into the engine and cause havoc.

 

In the countless times I've used a wire wheel I must have been really reaLly rEalLy lUcKy!111

 

its probably not that big of a deal on a sbc, as there are no oil galleries on the deck, but way less control of where debris is going vs a razor blade or stone

 

It's fine.