With that in mind and the origin of this engine if it truly is leaking past the head gasket you may not get it to stop , Cometics require a certain surface finish on both the head and the block to seal properly , following your build up I don't think I saw this taken into account? Did you put some type of spray sealer on the gasket?

If Cometic says to retorque then you're going to have to bite the bullet and do it .