Guys, these heads came off the 383 I am installing, just a freshen up with a small cam and springs, these heads had just been done a couple years ago, I am cleaning up the surfaces to reinstall the heads and notice an aggressive mill surface, you can feel the ridges with your fingers and sounds like a zip tie with your nails. I am going to use fel-pro perma-torque but concerned with this surface. It is typical on both heads

The motor ran fine prior and did not have any issues, but my concern remains.

Thoughts...

idk weather it's perfect or not but the 516 heads on my 383 were about the same finish as yours, I'm using the felpro 1009 head gaskets with no problems

Cometics NO, Felpro Permatorks that will be fine. Slap it together.

Should be fine with a composition gasket.

What machine makes that kind of surface finish? Van Norman 555? I'm not sure I have seen factory heads that rough.

That was VERY common for us oldtimers to see heads finished like that and our gaskets never moved. LOl As a matter of fact I bought a 555 but never got it running and finally sold it.

Yep! I had to do that to a 340 years ago to keep it from blowing head gaskets, used the blue fel-pro's and it never had a problem again

That looks like your typical hurry up and get to the next head finish most general automotive machines shops use to do
I've had more than one iron head surfaced that was like that, I would put several thick layers of silver or aluminum paint coats on the OEM steel beaded head gaskests and torque them down They didn't leak back then but, in hind sight, smoother would have been much better

555 is a grinder...those are cutter marks.... feed was too fast Some machines only have pre set feeds.

I remember that finish. Using Felpro, MP or Dvorjak Detroit gaskets never was an issue, although Felpro's gave me a problem when I started stepping up compression.

Wow not me. That's the only way we got our junk to run 9's forty years ago with crap 906 heads and TRW Pistons. Over cam, over carb, and over compression.

I was using a lot of Direct Connection parts back then. Tried to get into the 9's. Started breaking a lot of .690 mushroom cams, lifters, battleship springs. Final straw was when DC rod bolts were letting go. Was always shifting under 7,000. Finally changed machinists, and went away from DC.

I used them that way without issues .. I had a problem blowing head gaskets between the exhaust valves on a really smooth set of heads.. fwiw ... I used a small center punch to put small dimples in the area where the seal ring would contact the head around each bore. I did the block as well . the ridge left by the center punch would actually grab the gasket and lock it so it could not shift under hi pressure loading ...

I found the Felpro standard gasket to work better than the race gasket. But still blew at 12+ compression. When I contacted Felpro, they said that their gaskets are only rated for 12:1.

A very good Friend of mine taugh me an old NASCAR secrete that worked great with cast iron heads. We would take a counter sinking tool and cut a 45 degree cut around each head bolt on the head deck surface. It would spread the pressure across the head instead of directly under the head stud bolt area.

loved hanging around that dude

You and I both

The machines used for engine rebuilding have evolved quite a lot in the last 30-40 years.

I'm not sure if my head surfacer could even produce a finish as coarse as what's in the OP's pics.

A shop i worked at over 20 years ago had a pretty nice wet grinder type head surfacer, and if you ran the table feed up pretty high it would produce a finish like in the pics.

Now you tell me. Where were you when I needed you 30 years ago?

Thanks everyone, I will do as suggested and let it fly.