Ok, So I tore it down yesterday. I found the head gasket blown between 4 and 5 cyls, found high wear and some scoring on the cylinder walls (nice raised notch at the top of the cyls) found the pushrods so packed with hard sludge that they would barely pull out of the head.
I also found that the coolant passages to the head were plugged off with slag, so she wasn't circulating much water.
The exhaust manifold on #6 seems to be warped and wasn't sealing bvery well to the block. The radiator is toast, the hoses literally fall apart in my hand. The old distributor and vac advance is frozen up, the carb linkages have seen better days. All this coupled with a leaking questionable 3 speed is starting to make me re-think my goal at keeping the truck original.
By the time I buy all the parts to make this engine original, and get a long block or hsve this one bored, I can buy a V8 that has newer technology at a conparable price....
I play with V8's in boats as my job everyday, so the V8 to me isn't that special. I kind of liked the idea of the 6 cyl, especially the 3 on the tree setup, but I wonder if it's worth the expense.....
What do you guys think?
