John -

1) Correct

2) You're looking for any change in pressure required to continue turning - there should be no roughness until you find bottom. Bottom and/or drag can happen two ways - first the common one of not enough threaded depth in the block hole - and second, not enough threaded length on the bolt. The first you should know how to deal with - the second requires cutting additional thread length on the bolt with a die.... hopefully you won't have to do that, but if you do it's not something to worry about - just do it.... I've found that Lubriplate works well for thread-cutting with a die.

3) Correct except omit the head gasket thickness from the calculation and use that thickness as an additional margin of error. The head gasket as measured before installation is quite a bit thicker than after the head is torqued down. I don't know what Fel-Pro states as their compressed thickness. To really be on the safe side, make sure you have enough room to allow for the bolt turning length from installed snug to full torque. I've forgoten how many turns there are from snug to 80 lb-ft on that thread pitch (1 1/4, I "think"), but in my post "3.0L Head Gaskets" I think I covered it and made a suggestion on how large the negative number should be to make absolutely certain you have room. One way to make sure is to measure the head bolt-to-deck distance as soon as the bolt makes a couple of turns and you can take a reliable dimension - then count several full turns, re-measure and divide the height difference by the number of turns to see the depth/turn. Multiply depth/turn by 2 (maximum turns from snug to full torque) and make certain you have that as a minimum negative number for clearance. If that's confusing you, I'll try it again tomorrow.

Frank