I see what looks to be where the water leak was. zoom in around the water port and oil passage to the LA rockers.
see the water stain bleeding over into the oil passage???
oil pressure with no where to go most likly wicked/seeped over to the water passage. IMO
gasket with no hole would be a better seal here, it wont let oil to both edges/sides of gasket blocking off the oil PSI
LA head gaskets work fine on magnum heads. even if the hole is in the gasket, it dead-ends to nothing on the head surface. I had no issues using the Mr. Gasket LA head gasket on my magnum. I'd put my on the intake manifold leaking. maybe upgrade to some good grade 5 or grade 8 bolts for the intake manifold to be able to tighten down better?
I didn't have any problems, but I had redrilled my heads to LA bolt pattern and ran an LA edelbrock air gap on my magnum heads.
I would agree with that also.
why would the oil passage be rusted if it was not leaking water into it?
it does look like a water stain on the block at the water port/oil passage to me. leading me to think head gasket leak.
if it was only the intake gasket leaking it would not have rust in the oil passage.
looking at the pics,I see rust/water/tracks high in the corner at head gasket edge by #7 cyl leading me to an intake gasket.
I would be more worried about rust in the oil passage. sure sign of water to me.
on the intake manifold leaking. maybe upgrade to some good grade 5 or grade 8 bolts for the intake manifold to be able to tighten down better?
