After a week of shady tree garage wrenching I finally got the offending head off to inspect the damage. Since I knew it was a RH head gasket blowing out exhaust gasses (verified with an articulating mirror - I could see red hot gasses coming out) AND I drove a full 2 hours to get it home (plus however miles the guy I bought it from drove) I feared that the hot gasses scorched a channel through either the head or the block or both.

After talking to the guy that I plan to rebuild my heads, he said no way the gasket blew out exhaust gasses... In his 40 years he had never seen it (WRONG). After talking to a local Rover mechanic he said no worries he had people drive 3 hours to his shop with no troubles. After looking through this forum I had seen horror stories about the block being scuttled and in need of decking. While I know it all depends on a lot of things I just want this post to give a glimmer of hope to someone facing the same issue I did.

I have no problems!! While I am mechanically inclined and have worked on cars all my life this job (while I only have one head off right now) took a total of about 14 hours not including rides to the tool store and asking questions here.

Big learning here are use a 5/8" impact socket with a breaker bar and an iron pipe (4 feet) to break even the worst head bolt loose. Also, rent a fan wrench kit. Buy a 12mm 12 point socket to get the exhaust bolts off. Use the RAVE manual - it is right on.

I am attaching photos to show what the head gasket looks like.