You want the hole pretty dry and pretty clean. You can hydrolock the head bolt on a little bit of oil/water/thread lube in the bottom of the hole. And I lube the threads and washers and underside of the bolts. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/evil.gif" alt="" />

To be really safe, measure the height of the head, add the thickness of the washer plus the head gasket compressed thickness (I just use .040 to .045 and call it good for the gasket. Record the total (this is A). Now run the bolt into the head until it bottoms, and back it up a quarter turn, then measure the distance from block deck to underside of bolt head, bolt pulled up away from bleck tight. Record this measurement and name it B. A must be greater than B or the bolt bottoms before it hits torque.