Reconditioning the Block prior to Head Install

[tberk@mindspring.com (T Berk)]

Feature Rich Roc Content!:

The hydro head has it's cam reinstalled but not yet tourqued to spec,
the valve's faces were decarboned, the port and polish was by passed
in favor of one less thing holding up the Roc running. Besides I can
redo the solid lifter head now anyway.

(MIA: New Exhaust studs. I have them  _someplace_ !!)

Questions for those who got this far; I am going to clean the two
mating surfaces, head and block with some Simple Green and/or Purple
Power and then reclean with Brake Cleaner to get all oily residue off.

I was thinking to skim lightly the iron block's top surface with some
fine grit sandpaper wrapped around a sanding block, just to remove
some of the oxidation. I fear making it too slippery smooth though.
Any tips on block freshening?

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[OT]  Wish me luck, I'm upgrading the computer tonight.

What with the pending rain my install of the reconditioned (well, not
even warmed over, just flattened) head will be postponed until blue
skies return. 

In any case I'm finally leaving Win98se behind as the default OS on
the email machine and going (back to) Win2k, just to get better use of
the hardware (memory).

Might be off-line for awhile, prob. not.  

Thx for playing along,
TBerk