Originally Posted by Brian Carlton

The SD suffered the same fate. Unfortunately, it was not simply the head gasket but a cracked head.

The job is not all that difficult if you're not under any time constraint. If you read through the posts here and obtain the FSM for the job, you can easily remove the head in one weekend........working fairly slowly.........and taking a bunch of breaks.

As Rob mentioned, I'd send the head to Metric Motors..........not too far from you. The cost is less than he mentioned if you send them your head and allow them the time to rework it. They'll convince you that you need valve springs and prechambers as well. The total cost should be about $1200. or so.

However, the performance of the reconditioned head is simply fabulous. The SD can start at 0F. within 1 second. Compression is probably close to the original factory numbers.

When the manifold is off, you might consider sending it to Jet-Hot coatings to get rid of the rust. Seems like it's worth the $150. to make it look as good as it runs.