Head gasket recommendation

Duane said
Getting ready to put heads on my new build. Compression will be approximately 12:1,ported W2, 410 X block, .650 lift roller, Race motor only.
My local machine shop has done a nice job with the machining of the block, but the surface finish is not optimal for an Mls Cometic. I see that Felpro and Mr. Gasket now make Mls gaskets that "supposedly are designed to seal rougher surface finishes while still having the benefits of the Mls. I have never had any trouble with the Felpro 1008 blue in past builds, but those builds did not use this much compression. I have also seen a YouTube video by Cometic that stated although they do not recommend it, if you have to spray your gaskets, to use hylomar.
My local machine shop says not to fall into all the hype about surface finish, that they have used Mls all the time without issue.
Will the Felpro 1008 work reliably at 12:1 or is there another option. Will be using studs by

the way.
Any input appreciated

Duane

If the deck is flat and the head is flat, you've beat 90% of the sealing issue.

I wish rough surface finishes went away decades ago . The old wives tale that the rough surface "bit" into the gasket and it stayed in place better. It is nonsense. It was nonsense then too. The dowel pins hold the gasket in place.

Every surface should be milled to as flat and smooth a surface as the tooling and the rigidity of the machine can do. Think about it. As the engine builds temperature, the block and heads expand at different rates. Even if both are cast iron. It's worse with bimetal engines. As the block and head expand and contract with heat, those ridges you feel with your fingernail wear down. When they do, the fasteners lose tension and you have a gasket failure.

Again, there are thousands of engines out there with a fairly rough surface finish. The best finish is as smooth and flat as you can get it. Most of the time, either the shop is stuck on a rough finish because it's the way they've always done it, or they don't have a machine capable of machining a surface as smooth as it should be.

With your CR, if you don't detonate the hell out of it, a Fel-Pro blue gasket will be fine. Detonate it and you can kiss any head gasket goodbye.