Should I shave my cylinder heads???

[nate_o23]

I am in the process of pulling my cylinder heads because of a blown head gasket. I am wondering if I should have my heads shaved?? I have a friend that will do it for my favorite price...free!! If I have them shaved how much should I have him take off?? I was looking at the Felpro head gaskets and I noticed they had one that was .010 bigger. Is this how much I should take off?? AS a side note why is the .010 head gasket $10 cheaper then the standard gasket??

[Kennedy]

I would suggest truing them up especially at that price. If you do, you'll want to pull the precups and then cut the pockets in for the correct protrusion.

[john8662]

A machinist should be able to tell you if the heads need to be shaved or not.

Usually you only need to shave the heads to correct pitting issues on the surface or to correct slight warping or not being true. You can take a max of .012" off these heads, and by taking material off the heads you DO NOT have to use the .010 head gaskets to compensate. The .010 head gaskets are for correcting deck height issues, such as the deck of the block being cut down to correct issues mentioned above. The .010 head gaskets can lower your compression approximatly a compression point. If you are non turbo, this will just make for a slightly harder starting engine, and be of no real advantage.

Again, to confirm, just examine the head surface carefully and check to see how true the surface is (afterall if did blow a head gasket, find out why) then see if you need to shave them.

J