Re: Yes, I should just get them surfaced, right?

You can have the manifolds planed to flatten out the surface face and be sure the block surface face is free of marks and pits. A possible problem is that most manifolds fit really close to the head. Depending on how much planing it requires to achieve a level face may cause clearance issues with other areas of the manifold. #1 and #5 have are very tight on the bottom side. This is from me looking over a my 73 302 with factory manifolds. For the price of planing the manifolds, possible new clearance issues and 2 trips to the machine shop I think the money would be better spent on a decent gasket if not quality gasket that can be reused.

I've run replacement exhaust gaskets with factory manifolds on 3 302 engines and one 390 with no leak problems. Just don't bother with cheap paper ones, they're known to be useless. Go with the steel shim ones coated in graphite or get fancy and buy some copper or aluminum crush gaskets. I bought some aluminum ones for my 69 years ago and was impressed with the quality.

>>Jason