[Talkwrench]

If youve taken that much off without knowing if its ever be done before it would pay to put them on without the head gasket and turn the engine over by hand and check nothing is touching , if all good proceed.
If you've scrapped away to remove crud in your cooling system, you might want to consider using something to catch it moving around now. Not sure of what you guys have in the U.S. but here I run cone filters in the top hoses of the radiator.