re: spider head gasket?

[bj962@domain.elided]

My post last night or this afternoon didn't make it in, 
so...  One more time.
I have a couple of concerns with my 91 Spider that I'd 
like to share and possibly get some direction on.

I finally got around to replacing the breather hose that 
runs from my valve cover to the PCV can.  Mine had been 
cracked (and taped) for months.  I found the old hose was 
coated with thick tan goo on the inside, but it wasn't 
blocked.  So I also removed and cleaned the PCV can and 
the hose to the intake.  They were also coated with the 
same stuff as well as a few drops of water.  The inside of 
the can was pretty rusty too. 

Thinking that I may have a head or head gasket problem, I 
decided to re-torque my head nuts and see if it made a 
difference.   This is the first time I've done this on an 
Alfa.  When I loosened the first nut (middle driver's side)
coolant seeped out.  None of the others seeped.  Could 
this be normal???  Then...
The next afternoon, after a long stretch of freeway 
driving, I hit rush hour and traffic stopped.  My temp 
guage started to rise.   I turned the heater on full blast 
just as the temp idiot light came on.  Before I could get 
over to the shoulder to shut things down, the temp light 
went out and I was back at a normal (mid-guage) temp, as 
long as I kept the heater on while crawling along in 
traffic.  When back up to freeway speeds I didn't need to 
keep the heater on to maintain normal temps on the guage.  
This car is a daily driver for me (around 70+ miles/day) 
and this is the third time this has happened in the past 
several months.  The electric fans work or at least I know 
they come on when I let the car idle for quite a while in 
my driveway.

Late last night I re-re-torqued the head nuts, thinking 
that I (once again) screwed something up.
Same thing happened on my drive home today.

Not only was I wondering if anyone could tell me if the 
above events are related to the same problem, but could 
they also be related to an engine noise that I can only 
explain as loud valve noise that starts only after the 
engine approaches normal running temps.  When I bought the 
car about a year ago, I was concerned about the noise and 
had the dealer (formerly Bellevue Alfa) check the valves.  
They claimed it all checked out OK and louder than normal 
valve noise was common on 91+ spiders.  I don't know if 
it's louder now than it was when I bought the car, but 
that tick tick tick really bugs me.

Am I in for a new head gasket?? Or is there something else 
I should be checking out.
If it's a head gasket, do I really need all the special 
tools shown in the manual?

Oh, other than the goo, no sign of oil in coolant or 
coolant in oil.

Any comments would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Fred
91 Spider

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End of alfa-digest V7 #1367
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