A few more comments on heads: A glass plate is very flat, probably flat enough, but just try taking off more and a couple of thou using sandpaper - it takes forever!! Plus it's really difficult to take off the exact amount across the head surface. Usually one corner or one end gets too much reduction, or not enough. I used to do precision grinding at work and it is not that easy to keep something flat.

It is legitimate to check your head with a straight edge and feeler gauges, but you need a really good straight edge that is long enough and they are somewhat costly. If your head is more than a few thou warped you can either have it cut or buy a replacement ITM head for about $260 and have a brand new head. That is really tough to beat and the ITM heads are reputed to be excellent quality.

On a warped head, my machine shop said that if you tighten down the cam caps and your cam still turns by hand, you are good to go. Usually there is enough clearance in the cam bearings that minor warping is acceptable, but too much drag is obviously a problem. My head was warped only 0.004, so I had it resurfaced and touched up the valves and seats. If they don't take too much off, say only about 0.006, you will be OK, or just buy the new ITM head, it is not much more than the machine shop charges to clean, resurface and rework your old head.

If you want to have all new parts you can order the "famous brand" rebuilt head from Rock Auto for about $450. They don't tell you where they get them, but I am reasonably sure they come from ATK, or at least they use an ATK part number. These are more expensive than the Clearwater/Odessa heads built on new Chinese castings from CIFIC. Both ATK and Clearwater have many horrible reviews, but also good reviews, so the quality of the parts will be unknown, but you almost certainly won't be getting high quality valves, springs, and a cam for that price. If your head and valve train is really shot the replacement head, though questionable, is probably better, but you'd better look it over VERY carefully.

Or you can buy the bare head from ITM and build it up with new quality parts from Rock Auto for about $650 and really know what you've got. It's not that much more, considering all the labor to remove and reinstall a head.

Or best of all you can buy all new parts from Mitsubishi and assemble them, but the bare head is about $670, plus the valves are pricey, and who knows if they are any better, but you will have an OEM set up for under $1000. There is always someone out there who has to have OEM.

Given that shops around here charge $2000 to properly replace a head gasket, including reworking the head, you can come out way ahead even using OEM parts!