The car seems to have about 50% more power. Considering her size and weight she glides like nothing is touching the ground.
The Ultramatic is smooth as glass.
You turn the key and the engine has started instantly. Before the head job, the Temp Gauge would slowly go up to about 3/4 and then very slowly come down to about 1/2. Now it goes up to about 1/3 slowly, and holds. The temp here in Phoenix has been in the low 50's
I did replace all four tires with the Coker Steel Radial that looks like a Bias Ply from the 50's, Wide white wall. The car looks like a million bucks. These tires are not as fat as the old White Walls that I had on it.
When I drove her home from the shop on the freeway, about 40 miles, the blue preservative was completely washed off the white walls as we were in a blinding rain. The Vacuum wipers worked perfectly (rebuilt wiper motor by "Wiper Man"), Rebuilt windshield washer by "me".
Before the new gasket it was apparently burning a little antifreeze in several cylinders and blowing combustion out the back of #8. I would suspect there was combustion into the cooling system which could account for the temperature variation.
I kept the old head gasket as a memento for forensic research
