[dsraven]

when you have it all apart and clean I recommend using a long strip of course sandpaper, like the ones used for autobody work, on a hard flat surface, like a strip of 3/4" plywood, to clean the gasket surfaces. a roloc disc is used by a lot of guys but if you aren't careful they can easily remove material from the block and, especially on a head gasket surface, can make for a possible head gasket leak. I have a strip of plywood cut a little shorter than the sandpaper, so the paper can be bent around the ends of the plywood and staped on. I use 80 grit paper for gasket surfaces but I run the paper over a sharp edge of something first, before I use it on a surface, to remove the "high spots" of grit so as not to groove the actual gasket surface. to get the surface ready first, like to clean off any hard to remove old gasket that could be remaining, I use an old 1 1/2" wood chisel with a clean sharp edge and no burrs on the edge.