Surfacing Cylinder Heads With Sandpaper and Granite Surface Block...

If you look at the surface of the head or a block that's been decked at the machine shop, it's fairly rough unless you're using MLS head gaskets. From what I can tell from a fair amount of searching, 80 grit paper should give the correct Roughness Average (RA) for a non-MLS head gasket.

I agree with you on removing the taper; each head is lower on one end, so it will not necessarily be an easy task to get both heads completely flat. However, I plan to go slow and check often, and if it's not working the way I planned, I can always bring them to the machine shop to get a skim cut done. The heads appear to be untouched, so removing a bit of material is no big deal.

Thanks