[ihc] Mr. Reed was right

["Jim Grammer" <jgrammer@xxxxxxxxxx>]

And he knows it, of course. The heads *did* end up coming off the topless
SII, and both the intake and head gaskets had failed on both sides. 3
cylinders had just recently begun taking on coolant. The signs were subtle;
some 'cleaner' areas on the head gaskets, spark plugs in those 3 holes were
lightly steam cleaned, and there's a hint of rust at the top of #8 bore. It
hadn't  gone far enough to effectively clean the tops of the pistons.

Had I not found the coolant on top of the valley cover while searching for
the drip, drip that should have been fixed already(core plug replacement), I
likely would have kept driving it until it was a 'white smoker'. Glad I
caught it when I did! Once  the intake was off, the decision to pull the
heads 'just in case' took about a nano-second.

This has been a very interesting exercise in 'what will fail next' :) A
radiator leak & swap leads to core plug leaks leads to head/manifold gasket
failures. In the process I found a badly botched clutch install(PO, would've
trashed the clutch with a little more driving) and prolly flushed/scraped a
pound of rust out of the motor.

Somehow I managed to keep a lid on project creep for now. With the heads
off, there's no way I could pass up the easy access for a remote solenoid
conversion and a swap to the early style steering u-joint. Same deal with
re-sealing the front cover and swapping in new motor mounts(maybe I can put
my t-case shift know back on ;) ). Other than that, a new sub fuse panel
under the hood and a relay for the electric choke on the Motorcraft carb
were the only 'adders'.

Now crossing my fingers I can go the rest of the summer topless!

Jim