Farmall A engine deck

Have the head pulled off my '39 A to redo the valvetrain and have the head resurfaced. There is some pitting in the deck of the block around the water jackets where the old gasket didn't cover it. If I have the deck resurfaced to clean that up it will also take off the top of the cylinder sleeves which protrude slightly. Will that make a difference? Seems like I'd get a better seal. I don't want to pull the sleeves, or replace them unless I have to. It looks like a simple honing of the bores will clean them up fine.
 
If you get the right head gasket, the new one won't cover the pitted areas either. The pits don't hurt anything.
 
I went all thru that, decking the block, i reused the same sleeves, and pistons, just honed it and new rings, it's now has 170 lbs of compression which is fine, and doesn't use oil. But mine only lasted 2 years, with the top of the block cavitated.
 
I have an engine that they resurfaced with the sleeves in and the head gasket will not seal the sleeve tops due to that. The sleeve need to stick up just a little bit or they will not seal as they need to
 
I got the engine stripped and dropped of at the machinist today and he said that if the block needed resurfaced he would need to pull the sleeves and machine their recesses to match, and he wasn't real excited about the prospect of that. It makes sense that the sleeves need to protrude to seal with the head gasket since there's only an o-ring to seal the bottom end of them.
 
Part of the sealing of the sleeve O-rings is the fact the head presses down on the sleeves when you install the head, No pressing down means O-rings that may not seal which is not a good thing
 

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