Swell. External head gasket leak.
Spent a few hours hoping it was something else.
Cleaned exhaust manifold. New gaskets.
PO had liberally applied sealer to plugs and there were barely snug. Cleaned that off.
Had to replace a couple broken studs, manifold to down pipe.
Sounds no different than when I started.
Nuts.

 

I'll pile on a bit. If the prior owner had liberally applied sealer to the plugs, there was a reason. Are you sure it is a gasket leak and not exhaust blowing past spark plug threads?

 

Yeah, it's not the plugs. Was kinda hoping it was as they were all kinda just snug and had goo on them. Thread chaser felt good and all torqued out to spec once cleaned off.
I took a pokey bar and ran along head/block seam and found it whilst running. Rockauto order in.
Was really hoping to drive is some this week. Kinda tired of the "Style Cramper".

 

Found it.

 

That’s a pretty definite leak point!

 

Is that a significant channel created in the head? Is that fixable?

 

Discoloration is all.
Brake cleaner took care of it. Can't feel anything with fingernail.

 

Going back together alright. Had a small issue with the left head. One bolt seemed "off" when taking it out. Didn't think to much of it. When putting in the new head bolts, one stopped proud. Took a second look at the old bolts. One of the three long ones was a tad short.





Side grinder, a flap disk, and a chase nut used to shorten new head bold.
Broken off tip still in block.

 

I’m not one to try to create extra work, but I think you should work at getting the broken tip out of the bolt hole. But, if you already installed the shortened bolt and it held without stripping you’re probably going to be okay.

 

Normally I would of cleared it out but screw it (pun intended). Was quick and dirty gasket job. Has plenty more than 1.5 times thread engagement.