once the head was off, and the causes of the head gasket failure was determined, I went to work cleaning things up to get ready for re-assembly.

There was no evidence of any detonation in any of the cylinders. Not bad for a motor that has a SCR of 10.3:1. I love those flattops.

[even though I know that there had been times when there was some pinging going on, from using other than premium fuel, the pinging had never been severe. I found no evidence of detonation, or any damage that can be traced to detonation as its cause. For a NA motor, some light occasional pinging is not disastrous; although it is still not on my favorite motor sounds list.]

There is no cylinder ridge on any of the bores. Those dark areas at the top of the bores is just discoloration. I did not use a ridge reamer or a hone. I just wiped them down with solvent.