Porting head gasket...

I got a motor that I'm rebuilding, doing some porting and polishing on the head and noticed that the coolent passages are kinda a bent oval like on most motors, and the headgasket is solid with just a small hole punched in it, no where even close to the side or shape of the passages. I was wanting to know if it was ok to match the gasket opening to the coolent passage opening or if it only has a small hole in it for a reason.

its what they call a "steam hole". its supposed to be there. you dont want complete uninhibited flow through the block or proper heat transfer wouldnt take place. kinda like your a/c with the fan speed on high, it just doesnt work as well