This is accurate but light on what happens because you covered the block and what should happen, but doesn’t always. The heads & intake need to also be perfect OOTB for a new head and the OE is not even close.
The same thing you did to the block no applies to the heads and then the intake.
After zero decking the block, it is now shorter in overall height. (No duh, I know, info for new guys) the cylinder heads also need this treatment. Starting with the deck. Then a measurement angle wise on the intake side of the head. IF! The angle meets the spec to mate to the intake, we now move on to the intake. Same again. Check angles, mill to correct.
Now we are left with the front to rear geometry & angles. Let’s just say it should be level from front to rear. This is not always the case so you need to kill that. Now you have two killed surfaces on the intake to meet the head. But your not done because there could be a height difference between the front and the rear even though everything else has been squared.
Sometimes you’ll have to shave off a small amount on the rear of the intake to get it flush on all angles. Up/down, side to side, left to right.
This is actually quite common in building an extremely well fitting host of parts. The great thing is aluminum does bend a good bit to conform to the Irregularities that could be present.
Now that I typed this out, I just thought of something. I could have saved time by sending everyone to a Hughes engines link. (At the moment I don’t know where it is, but on the Huhgesengines site…..)
Most of the time, unless it is an extreme build, you can get away with less machining and it’ll all work.
To say THAT intake above is wall art is IMO a stretch. It assumes a lot. Which is possible. But worth checking. Even if the assumed cuts were really heavy, the notion that it is cut beyond use is also a stretch. Unless it is cut Bizarrely huge and it’s amounts. And it doesn’t look so. The rest of the parts below the intake can be machined to match. The only way I see it is not fitting or being used is that if it was for use on a odd, non-stock deck height block. There may not be enough to mail on the intake or the cylinder head it made to to fit on a short 9.00 or less height block.
