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I posted this in the general non gen specific section and didn't get a response, so I figured I'd come back to the 7th gen specific friends...

I am in the process of replacing my headgasket. I have the head off, intake off, exhaust manifold off, etc... My head is level, I checked it with a level and feeler guages.. Anyways.. I am wondering, what's the best way to prep both the block and the cylinder head before they are mated together again?? I am ordering the oem gasket set and going to replace all the gaskets I've take off and broken the seals on... I don't know if there's a spray that works best with a rag? Or if i should use some of these discs that i've used on a drill before? See, i'm not used to doing this sort of thing all the time, and especially not use to all the gaskets being metal... the smaller repairs I have done in the past had more like cork type gaskets I had to scrape off... but with the metal head gasket, exhaust and intake gaskets it's like hmm, do I just wipe it off, or should I use the little disc, things... A friend told me to get the big stuff with a razor blade and then use 400 grit sand paper with a block of wood and then spray it off to get the small particles off.. Any feedback is greatly appreciated... I know it's aluminium which dents easy, etc.. so I am being careful with the razor, i did notice one little scratch I put in the block..

So far the project has gone okay, I miss driving the car, it's been about a week so far and I just ordered my gaskets and a couple of other misc parts.. The hardest part was getting the bolt off the crank pulley, I even ordered a generic version of the tool to hold the crank still.. just a biatch to get off..

I know some of you guys like boilermaker and gearbox have to know the answer to this... sorry about the shout out haha..

Thanks Again..