The RA they recomend makes the surfaces shiny like they are polished.I have felfro's which are pretty much the same thing buy have a plastic film on them. I didn't have the RA right the first time either with mine and one side leaked coolant. I took it apart, knocked out the rivets holding the 3 layers together and cleaned the gaskets to re-use them.When it was apart I took a flat block to the block and heads with sand paper and knocked down some of the machining marks. So far so good since they're back on.