Re: Tom has a gas leak and it isn't Wanda's cooking

[tsm1@domain.elided (Tom Mandera)]

>>Pulled the rad cap on the '72 tonight and warmed the truck up.. 
>>antifreeze overflowed into the driveway, but no bubbles.. still white 
>>smoke tho'.
>Tommy,
>You have a massive gas leak into the coolant. You aren't seeing indiviual 
>bubbles because of the amount of gas being leaked. 

Hmm...

The water level was fairly full when I pulled the cold rad cap off.  I
started the truck up, and let it run for a while... after a bit, I assume
the thermostat opened (kept checking the temp gauge) and then the antifreeze
started to run over the top of the open radiator.. I don't know how much for
how long, but there was a nice big wet spot on the ground.  

No bubbles... but lots of smoke.

Modulating the throttle didn't seem to change the rate of coolant flow
perceptably.  

The Scout always had a white puff at startup, but I never noticed it while
running.

It's been parked for nearly two years and the only running it's received has
been in the last few months when I occasionally start it for a bit...
sometimes just to hear the V8 purr.. other times to make sure it's running
well enough to swap.

So....

What is my next course of action?

There *is* antifreeze in it, so I'm going to guess it didn't freeze and
crack the block (and wouldn't I "really" know it if I did?)

With the radiator capped, it doesn't seem to leak coolant anywhere...

It wasn't RUN, so I assume there could be nothing catastrophicly wrong with
it... 

Would the head gaskets shrink or otherwise stop functioning through lack of
use?  Or as a friend suggested, the rings have shrunk from lack of use (and,
as Willy said, I'm just not able to tell the smoke difference)?

NAPA should have new head gaskets for me by Wednesday or so.. $50 for the
pair.  How much of a chore is it to yank the heads and swap the gaskets?
Anything I should know about?  Can I do this w/o removing the intake?  What
*else* should I do "while I'm in there"?

And of course... *is it* the headgaskets?  How do I go about narrowing it
down to the head gaskets?  I do believe I have the tools to do a compression
check, though I've never performed such a check before.

I really want to make sure this motor's solid (like I thought it was) before
I finish yanking it out this weekend and swapping it.

At the same time, there may be issues with the 196 that need to be
resolved... unless, of course, I place it in a dark corner of the garage for
a while.  ;)  

Argh.

Maybe I just scoot down to Bozeman and put my "new" 304, wide T19, Dana 20
all in as a unit.... that's plan B.  Then I'd just need to put some
tailpipes on the glasspacks, and I'm ready to roll... (currently exit under
the cargo bed.. it is, after all, a race car)

Where do I go now, old wise Saline?

-Tom