360 LA getting oil in #3 cylinder.

Since this worked out, I thought I would add it to this story. At the time, I thought people may think I was crazy for filing on the deck surface. I bought a machinist's straight edge from Summit to check the block deck surface and found that the deck was pulled up at each of the top row of head bolts. I could fit a .003" feeler gauge under the straight edge right where the gasket blew out. So I thought the engine needed to come out. The machine shop thought I should just put it back together and try it before going to the extra trouble. I thought about that for a couple days before deciding to try a very small, very fine file on the deck to see what that would do. I put paper towels in each cylinder and sprayed a little WD40 on them so they would stick to the cylinder walls to catch any filings they landed there. I worked on and off for a couple days on the raised area around the head bolt holes until the worst place was still right where the gasket blew out but a .0015" feeler gauge was snug under the straight edge. One of the race engine shop guys said the Fel-Pro 1008 head gaskets needed .002" or less. My file is so fine that the filings weren't visible as metal. It would just show up as black on a paper towel.