So potential good news. Paul came over and did a block test and no hydrocarbons are showing up in teh coolant. What appears to be oil from the head, may be part of the massive amounts of residue from the previously shitty valve cover gasket. I cleaned it up, per Paul's recommendation, and noted it was actually pretty clean. I'll super clean it tomorrow and try again. There is a chance, there is literally nothing wrong with the head or HG. Fingers crossed.
Some pics.
The first hing I had to do was replace the battery. This one, for some reason, didn't work so well. My charger flashed, "Are you fucking serious" when I tried it. Never saw that before.
I've never seen crusty caked on oil like this before. Amazingly the lobes didn't show a lot of wear, nor was there any noticable metal in the oil The cams were definitely not getting the proper amount of oil, but apparently go enough to keep them from total failure.
Under the valve cover wasn't so hot either.
The crank wasn't as bad overall being in the pan.
But that pickup was never going to clear with just oils and standard solvents. Really harsh stuff might have worked, but then seals and bearings might have take a nasty hit.
The pan was pretty nasty.
This was just one of many little passes. There was probably a couple pounds of sludge in there.
Spent plenty of time to clean up the pick up, pan and top side. Put it back to gether with a short run of relatively fresh oil and solvents. Then another change. Purs like a kitten and is getting plenty of pressure and oil.