Sci 575 head replacement.
 

I pulled my low hr sci 575 for cam head upgrade, 112 hrs on engine, it was running perfectly, no leaks, no issues. Not happy with the deck condition, it's flat i checked that but there is some pitting. I have a set of cometic gaskets l always use copper coat but I'm concerned about leaking with these pits, I've assembled plenty of car engines that looked like this with no issues but this is alot of work to take back out if I have problems. If I had more time I'd deck it. Reason for post is I'm considering just using a felpro marine gasket, 17048. I've never had any problems with those gaskets. Engine is getting afr heads with head studs.

Option 1 cometic with copper coat and a skim coat of rtv around water ports, very thin skim.
Option 2 just use a felpro marine 17048 gasket.
engine will be around 750 hp 5-6 lbs boost with the tbs 250 blower.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...82740efae3.jpg
it looks worse in pic, you car barely feel them and the block is flat. I also have a merlin block 555 short block ready to assemble i was going to put in boat in couple years but this engine only has 112 hrs on it and has a bunch of life life
compression was 140 accross board with very low leak on leak test. No oil consumption no smoke.

I am less than an expert so take my comments for what they are worth. When I was building my engine I did a lot of research on head gaskets. I intended on using the cometic gaskets but to use them the deck surface has to be finished smooth or the coating on the gaskets will abrade with the micromovements that occur with expansion and contraction of the two different metals. There is a spec for the smoothness but my deck did not seem close so I just went with the Fel Pro and copper spray. Cometic speciffically states the requirement for deck smoothness on their instructions. I know a lot of people swear by them and have great success with them.

I'd go with option 2. I used the Felpro marine head gaskets on a 525SC with almost 8# of boost and no issues

I had a option 3, I pulled the rotating assembly, grabbed my longboard with 220 grit and cleaned up the deck, 20 minutes and it was 75% better. I checked deck again with my straight edge bar and it's still perfectly flat. 220 grit is RA 46. It's back together and heads are on. I've done this before, and if the deck is flat it's totally OK to do this.

you dont use rtv on the head gasket install

A few years ago I did a cam and head upgrade on my 575SCI. Installed a custom roller and a pair of Big Brodies. I had some very slight piston to valve clearance issues with the stock pistons due to the bigger valves in the Brodix heads. It never caused an issue and I didn't even know about it until a couple of years later when I had the heads off again. There were witness marks on all of the pistons just outside of the valve relief area. I installed a set of JE blower pistons that time which had larger valve reliefs.

Just something to be aware of.

crazy, did you degree the cam? those heads ,must of had a 2.30 intake valve i bet. Mine have a 2.25 intake valve and i have plenty of room with the stock piston.

The stock head has a 2.25 intake valve, so unless the cam was installed wrong and never degreed or the head maybe had a 2.30 intake you should of had plenty of room for the valve.

I agree, however i can tell you about a ford 347 i built back about 15 years ago. Supercharged 347 dart block afr heads big solid roller. 9.5 compression 30 lbs boost on c16. Car was making 1100 wheel hp, 1300 crank. We had to use rtv around water ports on the block to keep coolant from seeping on a pass. This was even a dart block with 1/2 head studs, ford has a funky head stud location though and not enough. car was a full weight gt mustang, fox body. Ran 8.19 at 168mph driving to and from the track haha. Not sure why this was needed, the block and heads were RA 50 finish.

Yes, cam was degreed