I would never use a wire brush on that. A single edge razor blade on a scraper tool is pretty much all I use. I don't want little wires getting into the engine, nor what happened to you, getting the rag caught up in the spinning brush, nor worry about rounding off square edges on gasket surfaces. If you use those fel pro Teflon coated gaskets, they don't leave much , if any, gasket mat'l on the surfaces.
