I'll join in the fracas pretty soon. Just have to make sure all the bugs are worked out before pushing the car REAL hard.
What I understand is the block had a groove cut in the top of the cylinder and then wire was hammered into the groove and is actually a little higher than the deck. I guess that was the "in thing" at one time but I've only blown a couple of head gaskets in 12 years so it can't be all bad. If I remember right, there was a guy that had an article in GMHTP about 10-11 years ago and he did this to the engines he built which was described as the ultimate build for a Buick turbo motor or something similar to that. I understand he stopped building these engines after experiencing a high failure rate.
Deck will be flat when the reworked heads come back from Champion and hopefully it runs to its capability.