Head Gasket and some other questions

[hotballs]

Alright, so I'm about to put my fresh head on the block. I've been using some scotch brite to clean up the mating surface of the block. Of course a little debris falls into a couple of the cylinder banks. I blow it out with some compressed air and some of the carbon that has built up on the pistons starts to flake off. My question is should I touch the pistons or just leave them alone?

The guy who machined the head said, don't touch the carbon on the pistons, just clean the block surface and you should be good to go. Now that some of that carbon is flaking off I feel like I should just get it all off. What's the call on this?

Also there is a coolant line running on the backside of the block to the throttle body. I've read alot of people bypass this in warmer climates. No one said anything about just blocking it off at the block. This is a track car. I'm going to plug it up.

[jlevie]

With regard to the carbon on the pistons. Clean it off if you feel so inclined, or leave it there. It makes no difference.

I'm of the opinion that the throttle body heater hoses should be looped. The system was designed to have flow through the throttle body all the time. Using similar logic, the heater hoses should be plugged if the heater is deleted.

[hotballs]

Right, I plugged up the heater core inlets and outlets. I found some information saying that is common on track cars. Just nothing on the throttle body hoses. I assumed if you're going to plug up the heater core then the same should follow for the TB hoses.