Breathing new life into the 318 in the Scamp!
The reason I don't think the block is screwed up is because I was running the 170K+ metal shim gaskets with the original heads, up until it was parked where it's being worked on. It never lost a drop of coolant, with the new radiator, never overheated, even with the old one.
In fact, I had a hard time getting this thing up to a reasonable running temp. Dropped the 180° thermostat and ended up going 195°.
When I looked at the head that was leaking, Don caught something that I didn't, near one of the center, outer water passages, which is where it was leaking, so I think it was a surface thing, rather than straightness, since the tweaked one actually sealed, but didn't have any odd areas on it's surface.
I still haven't touched it. I've been busy, working on an album cover that needs done by the end of the month. I think I will be in luck, this weekend, though. The nice thing about this fix is that I have a spare intake gasket set and it's a no-brainer put back together deal with no re-engineering/ moving parts around. It's all done, down to the air cleaner wingnut and nylon washer that sits under it.
I just hope the 7 1/4" holds up long enough for me to get the 833 trans and 8 3/4" built by the end of the summer. I think it's time to buy a Jeep for the winter, or something.