I'm rebuilding my engine and I got my heads resurfaced and my block cleaned by a shop but residue still remains on the block. I have taken a scotch brite pad and brake cleaner and tried to clean it up better but its not budging. My question is can I get by without it being a mirror-like finish. Will it be good enough as it is in the picture? I can't feel any gasket, almost like the block is stained. EJ22 motor. Head gaskets were fine before the rebuild.

Edited February 19, 201610 yr by gravitate

You've got the block torn down that far just have the deck (top surface) milled. At that point another $100 isn't gonna break the bank.

 

My normal method once the major head gasket bits are removed is to use 1000 grit sand paper to give a final finish.

It definitely will break the bank for me or else I would

Have you tried using gas to clean? It does wonders. 

a little bit of 400 - 800 grit wet sanding will lift a little more. Be gentle though. If it were an EJ25 or something with MLS gaskets, I'd say mill it....

 

But this is a 90s EJ22. Those gaskets are much more forgiving. In my opinion, the surface should not be super polished. You want just a little roughness for the gasket to adhere to. Not a lot but I would probably not go higher than 800 grit on the surface. That's just me though. Not sure if Miles Fox still lurks on here much but he has slapped a lot of these motors together with no resurfacing and only so much sanding and polishing and I don't recall there ever being a repeat failure.

I did use gas with no luck. Ill try sand paper I guess. This kit I bought for my rebuild has Topline head gaskets and they look identical to oem as far as material goes. Any thoughts on if I should use them or go oem?

sand paper.  i think 400 grit is roughly the one that gives a proper surface finish (GD has it listed in his thread about DIY head resurfacing).  i'd probably go with that but it's unlikely to matter either way - if it's flat and done right the chances of having issues are miniscule. 

at this point of your tear down - you could read GD's thread on how to DIY resurface your heads and probably just do your engine block for the price of sand paper and WD40.   check it out, it's really easy. 

Gasket surfaces should not be polished.  Yes, check out the post apocalyptic head resurfacing thread.