Help! Wiped cam lobes? - Video inside

perko said

So how clean do the mating surfaces really need to be? I've been scraping and scraping and rubbing it with an acitone soaked rag but some stuff will just not come off. It looks more like staining? Nothing feels 3D, for example there is a faint line where the old intake rubber bead used to sit that I can't get rid of and a dark stain around the carbon port on the mating surface.

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What I do is use a putty knife or a chisel to scrape off all the old gasket and then go over the mating surface with scotch brite until it's clean. Then spray with starting fluid and wipe down with a lint free rag to get any oil residue off. Getting all the old timing cover gasket off can be a pain but the intake shouldn't be too bad. Just be sure to keep junk from getting into your engine while it's opened up. Also, patience is key.