And Marc, there's more to machine work than just shaving the sealing surface. You must check it for cracks and not just ones you can see on the sealing surface, ones that could be inside the head where you can't see, like in the water jacket area. I don't know how they do it but a machine shop has special equipment to check for these cracks. You must also check the head for warpage. Remember, if a head is warped on the sealing surface, it's also warped throughout the entire head all the way up to the cam cover surface. You also have to clean the head. A machine shop uses special equipment that uses ultrasonic waves to clean the head. And the shop I used set my valve lash with brand new shims. Along with welding and re-threading my exhaust manifold stud holes, $200 was really not that bad. Trust me, its worth every penny sending the head to a machine shop.
One last word of advice I have for you, when you loosen the head bolts, of course do it in the proper order per TSRM but remember to loosen them in 3 increments. Don't just take one out then move to the next one and take that one out. Crack the first one loose then move to the next, then when you just barely cracked all 14 loose, go back and loosen them some more, but don't fully loosen them until you've done all 14 3 times. I know its confusing but its because you can crack your head if you don't relieve the pressure (that the head bolts are exerting) evenly.
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