Thanks Joe,
I'll print this out and do it all before I panic and go buying another anything.
I do know the timing is just set by ear after tearing the heads off and looking for gunk in the water jackets. We didn't find anything significant, just a little bit of gritty debris. I was hoping to find and remove some rat nest material that I missed when cleaning out the 1946 radiator but no such luck.
My coolant system is complete including the heater and an overflow tank.
The status of the bore is unknown, I bought the engine used out of a 72 Blazer but its block number indicates it is a 80-85 car motor. The heads were bought off craigslist from a similar motor that had a recent rebuild and a rod knocking. Makes me wonder if the rod was knocking because the heads were not doing their job.
If there is exhaust gasses getting into the coolant, wouldn't the coolant also be getting into the exhaust? I suppose my compression tester could be adapted with a rubber hose to check the overflow tube pressure.
