Thats the thing, this is a decent one, its one of the last ones built, if I can find a stop gap engine I can pull this one and rebuild it, they are easy to do and parts are cheap. I found a leak in the exhaust manifold which might account for the ticking, all the hot spots are proud of the head over the combustion chamber and dangerously close to the piston, the head is good , no cracks or strangeness , valves look Ok, the thing was coked up badly though, thick on the pistons and bores and around the head.
I put an 85 degree stat in it last week end, Im wondering if that had anything to do with it pressurizing the coolant, I still cant see any breeches between combustion or crank case and coolant though, it could be that the whole or part of the gasket lifted rather than a clean breech.