Just a followup FYI:
I've decided to go with the ARP head studs (bought and fitted), a careful deck and head surface treatment, a Felpro old-style composite gasket, and some cooling mods to the head. I ruled out copper gasket as too many variables and complexity introduced (I have a friend with a water cutting machine and a scanner so it wouldn't even be that expensive.)
From studying and measurements, I found a couple of head cooling problems that are easily fixed. One is curious; the thermostat is in a cast iron pod 3" outside and in front of #1 cyl. With the thermostat closed, as the engine warms up, no hot water passes near the thermostat; it has to sort of "waft" over or heat up via conduction. Head temperature spikes when the engine is cold -- I noticed this earlier but didn't put 2 + 2 together until this incident. The fix is to tap the pod for a 3/8" or so hose and tee it into the water pump heater intake to draw warming water past the thermostat. (The later six has the thermostat in the block, parallel to #1, so it gets #1's hot water).
The whole engine project is getting a web page I'll post that here later.
Thanks again everyone, and StrokerSix especially, for the hints and tips. It's led me to what i think are solutions.
