What is the best why to remove the left over head gasket material on my block.I have the engine down to the short block and was wondering should i atempt to clean up as it is or finish tearing down because getting that left over gasket material looks like it would make a mess in the engine and cause something else to go wrong. any help would be greatly appreciated .This site by the way rocks.also is there anyone who make a head gasket that installs
with out needing gasket sealer? thanks MIKE

Very carefully scrape it off w/ a SHARP/FLAT gasket scraper tool you can buy or use a STIFF/SHARP gasket scraper "putty knife"!!

And carefully clean all the crap you can out of the bores as good as you can.

Use air blown sideways so it swirl's the stuff out rather then straight down that may lodge something at the edges of the pistons and top rings. That is if you have air.

I've also use a fine bastard-cut 6" to 8" long triangle file and some WD-40 and very lightly/carefully filed the high spots off going from bolt-hole to bolt-hole!!

This is a "feelie" thing and you can tell by "feel" as well as how shiney the metal becomes. I do both, the decks and my head decks, then clean them good and go!! Just go slow and CAREFUL here is all, you will catch on fast if you do it...

pdq67

What is the best why to remove the left over head gasket material on my block.I have the engine down to the short block and was wondering should i atempt to clean up as it is or finish tearing down because getting that left over gasket material looks like it would make a mess in the engine and cause something else to go wrong. any help would be greatly appreciated .This site by the way rocks.also is there anyone who make a head gasket that installs
with out needing gasket sealer? thanks MIKE

Scraper for the tuff stuff, 3m roloc discs for all other areas. Use lightly. Lightly blow off residue with air, wipe down excess residue with clean rags.

There are several gaskets on the market that do not require a gasket sealer for installation. (Fel-pro, Detroit, Roll, etc)

the last time I did it I just put the vacuum in the cylinder that I was woking on with it blowing instead of sucking.This way it was a constant upward airflow up and out of the cylinder.I didnt have a air compressor at the time.when I was done I turned it around and sucked the rest of the small stuff out.Also this may sound silly but saran wrap does wonders and is cheap.just cover the cylinders that you arent working on and go with the vacuum blowing out that way it doesnt go in the ones you arent working on.Like I said it may sound silly but it works extremely well and is dirt cheap.