cracked cylinder head?

Hello Keith, it was great meeting you in 'Vegas. Sorry to read about your motor.

The head needs to be pulled & pressure tested, that will reveal if it is cracked. It may just be the head gasket leaking.

A cracked iron head is not repairable. A bad head gasket is. However a bad head gasket may point to the need to have the head, the block, or both surfaced, as they may have been warped if the motor was over-heated. This can be checked with a precision straight edge & feeler gage.

If the block requires machining, that means a complete tear-down. In which case, it is time to do a mini-rebuild; i.e. rings, bearings, timing chain, new cam, lifters & valve springs, and a valve job. If the heads are removed, it is esssential to use the opportunity to replace the valves with one piece, single groove, stainless steel valves, keepers & locks.

There are a few other parts I highly suggest replacing such as the 30+ year old balancer, but I don't want to spend all your money quite yet, until you have a better idea what's wrong.

cowboy from hell

Well it was a cracked head after all. So I bought a new core instead of messing with that one. I thought cleveland heads were scarce, he had bunches of them. This one has all new bronze guides already installed. It will cost me about $350.00. Since it's all apart, it will get a new aluminum intake manifold too!! I feel lucky again! It was great finally meeting you too George in person. Vegas is always a kick!