first of all i want to thank everyone who posted their 2 cents. all of it is appreciated.

second, i wish to God the bars leak suggestion arrived BEFORE i started dismantling everything to get at the head. i know the orthodoxy about such products. i have lived long enough to be able to weigh good short cuts from bad ones.

anyway to the update:

heads off every thing came apart without incident even the unhappy 8th exhaust nut. all my heater hoses are spiffy and in good shape. flame trap was near spotless so a bit of wasted time there.
the leak was from the outer cooling journal maybe less than an inch from outside of the head. truly a pin prick of slit in the head gasket. otherwise the head gasket looked in pretty good shape for 200,000 miles. no troubles getting it off and cleaning both the block and head surface, finishing with lacquer thinner. i see no pitting or scratches on either surface and i used large magnifying lens to double check. based on the size of the slit i think bars leaks would have done the job just fine. oh well, maybe in another 200,000 miles i will have another chance.

a machinist friend loaned me his straight edge to check for warp on both block and head. i can find virtually none. his feeler guages are .001 - .021. i was unable to get anything thicker than .001 anywhere under the straight edge and even that guage would only fit in 1 or 2 small areas. according to my specs check this is well within acceptable tolerances so i am going to simply replace the gasket with a new one and bolt it back up. all the head bolts loosen with a crack which scared me at first, but none broke and all seem to be the same length. again my friend used a c shaped tool with an adjustable handle to measure them and all came out fine. good threads and no nicks. i was surprised how actually how clean the cooling journals were. no crud to speak of.

anyway thats it for now. i expect to have it all together by end of today if the timing belt and timing marks and the water pump and its seals don't me to much trouble.

ps; the metal heater hose that snakes around back is sound and rust free. the crank sensor insulation is sound but will be replaced anyway.

my back hurts. the head is not that light and is awkward to remove, at least for me.