Hello, just took my heads off to change valve stem seals and replace a blown head gasket. Car had 250,000 miles on it and was misfiring pretty badly for a while before I finally figured out it was a head gasket because of the steam in the exhaust.

Everything looks pretty good in there as far as I can tell but I was wondering if this pattern of deposits on the intake valves is normal?




Also, just how clean do I need to get the mating surfaces? I know not to use any abrasives but I’m having a hard time getting those dark rings around the cylinders off with my plastic scraper and chemical gasket remover. The heads are arrow straight, no gaps at all when checked with a machinist’s straight edge so I wasn’t going to have them milled.

Any advice is much appreciated! Thanks!!