TD5 heads have a hard anodised coating for durability. Any skimming would remove it. That is why they say not to skim them.
The old VM was similar. Land Rover added the anodised coating to the spec. compared to the original marine spec.
There are places in Australia that do hard anodised coatings, but I have never needed to investigate .
Who knows what the loss in durability would be?
Regards Philip A

