Head gaskets for 360

Hello, this past weekend I assembled the top end of my La 360 for my 73 dart.

Took a while to get running but it finally did. Then it started sounding like crap. I took off the valve cover and drained the brand new oil. And it was very milky.

When I was putting on the head gaskets, I realized there were no dowel pins that hold the head and gasket to block without having to bolt it. Any reason those were missing?

Another thing to note. I torqued the head bolts to spec, but the intake seemed to be off and things didn’t seem to line up. So I then tried to loosen all the bolts and tried to push the heads further up the block to minimize the gap.

This actually helped a little bit.

Another question. I’m assuming torquing then retorquing would be bad practice being that the gaskets crush when clamped. Correct?

Would it be wise to get the heads machined just to make sure they are flat? Should I buy new ARP head bolts ?


Anything I’m missing?
Thank you