[RICK LAKE]

Foghorn I make a living working on cars, not building motors. I have done well over 300 motors in my last 28 years as a double master tech for GM. I am old school. KCR builds some of the most power per dollar HP motors in the FE family. 15 years of racing both with the cobra, and 1/4 mile cars with friends. Some motors are aluminum heads and iron blocks, some are all aluminum. I am sure the KCR does a gasket match before assembly of the motor.
Here where we differ,ALL my gaskets get either 1 or 2 coats of a sealer like HIGH-TAC, COPPER SEALER, and RTV on both sides of the gaskets and allowed to skin before installing and get 24 hours to totally set. Down side is if you are pulling heads or intakes alot, ( can't see why ) then I only coat 1 side of the gasket for sealing. The cleaning of surfaces takes time and is a pain. If using the correct tools to remove the old material like plastic looking razor blades and the correct 3m discs, (blue) you should have little to no damage of surfaces when done cleaning. IMO glueing gaskets stops 95% of the heat cycle problem. Gald KCR has gottin you new gaskets, who they seal better than the old ones. I think that the reason the gasket blew in was because of high coolant pressure from racing. Gald no damage was done to motor except for this. Weakest link in the chain goes first. Rick L.