Head gasket woes
Hopefully you weren’t pulling threads when torquing.
That was 22 years ago.
Engine was freshened a total of 5 times, same way, and now has over 100,000 miles on it. Never had a gasket failure after that, and I reused the 1008s a few times. IMO, If you don't try stuff, you don't learn. Like making babies.
I learned that even tho the buy-in on the 1008s is high, they were, in the long-run, the cheapest gaskets I ever bought.
Also learned that 105ftlbs is a good number.
But I'm not telling my friends to try either of those.....
Some more things I learned, that were game-changers for me, were ;
1) that having 5 gears was good/8 was bad/6 might be OK.
2) that a starter gear deeper than 11/1 was not for me.
3) I really liked the sound of my 367 screaming thru dual 3 inchers at 7000/7200; it didn't matter to me that the power was peaking at 5200>5500. It's a streeter and 7000 in First-over is 66mph.
4) that darn near every off-the-shelf FTH street cam that you can find, will have an installed ICA that falls into a 10 degree window, of 58 to 68 degrees. So then, if you set your Scr right, then, whatever street-friendly cam that you install, you may be able to maintain the same or similar CCP, by playing with the gasket thicknesses. This is true for at least one camsize either way. The Second camsize will be hit or miss.
5) I didn't like a 292/292/108 cam with 3.55s and a 2.66 low 4-speed.
6) that closed-chamber/tight Q/Alloy heads will run gangbusters on 87E10 at 195psi, and that then, I didn't need the stinking 292 cam anymore.
7) that an extra 20 ftlbs at 2000rpm, was way more useful than 20 over the nose.
8) and so much more.