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if a head gasket is blown is it required to get the head re-surfaced or can the gasket just be replaced?

you can just replace the gasket BUT if you take teh head off get it planed to make sure that its not warped and things like that, im in the process of doing a complete head rebuild, including resurfacing the cams and new valve stem seals, HLA'a, the list goes on im 1300 bucks in so far

If you're cheap and don't want to send the head to a machine shop, just get a paint scraper and scrape the head and block (just make sure you don't make any chips..) Scrape off all the nasty s--- (and make sure you scrape it well... it ended up taking me about 30 minutes to scrape head and block on a previous gasket replacement)

I bet that resurfacing wouldn't be that much at a shop though, and would be worth it cuz you never know if your head is warped at all... You could send the head in and scrape the block yourself.

You can use a machinest scale (steel ruler that is nearly PERFECTLY flat...they are expensive) to check the flatness of the head. The advantage of haveing it surfaced it two fold. Not only do you have a fresh perfectly flat surface but you also slightly raise the compresson in each cylinder. I also recommend cleaning the surfaces with Acetone and a clean lint free rag before putting it back together.

one thing to add is to remeberto change yur head bolts EVERY time your head comes off, they run about 120 bucks a set from Mazda

the reason is they are torque to yeild bolts and the stretch as you torque the head on to allow the head to move independantly from the block to avoid warpage and other issues