The most important thing I need to know right now is what the maximum warp for a head is. I have one with ~.005" measured between #2 & 3. (straightedge diagnoaly from corner to corner) Does the need to be surfaced? Ideally, yes it should, but will it still work reasonably well? From what I can see, the volvo spec is .020" lengthwise and .010" cross wise, but this seems to be too much to me. What do ya'll think?

Also, whould interitantly hitting ~14 psi of boost blow the gasket? The car had a rebuilt head with new gasket (elring) when I got it, and I've driven about 300 miles on it then blew the gasket from #4 to the intake side coolant passage. The car is an 85 trubo intercooled, and the previous owner had turned the boost up signifigantly. The highest I saw was ~13-14, and I probably hit that much 3-4 times for not more than 20 seconds each. I do not tend to use more than 1-2psi. As near as I can tell, it blew under hard acceleration when I was getting on the freeway one night, so that leads ceredibility to the therory that it was just too much. However, one of my friends with signifigant experince working on and owning these cars says that 14 psi should not be enought to blow the gasket esspeically since it wasn't used much. I am concerned because I want to incure there is nothing else wrong with the unit before I reassemble it. I am also turning the boost back down to roughly stock, and the block and head both have no obvious damge that would cause problems. There is also a decent chance it was not put on properly, as the previous owner does not seem to have conistantly worked on it and forgot quite a number of things. (front cam seal, didn't hook up thermal time switch, left some bolts loose and tightend others, etc)
~John