Originally posted by DanG:
I mis-spoke. Instead of actually "decking" the block again to bring it all even, the shop took a machine file to the area and took the fill-in areas down to deck height. The entire surface was not ground down, only the fill spots, then measured with a gauge to determine tolerance.





Welding to seal the extra vents is not a good idea. You can warp the block deck surface. Just because the machine ship went only "down to deck height" does not mean the "wavy" warped deck doesn't still have some low spots that can mean a future blown head gasket.

JB weld or quicksteel works fine. JB Weld will ooze more, so I installed it, taped over it and rotated the engine stand 180 degrees so that gravity worked with me, not against. I removed the tape and it was rock solid and has held up just fine.