Leaking water out of top of head gasket

[Charles uk]

Remember if you shorten the motor the carb with be breathing some of it's air from the well, if there are a lot of exhaust fumes in the well, you could give it carbon monoxide poisoning.

So a vacumn cleaner hose attached to the choke shroud might prevent this & quieten the air intake.

[Francis]

The water and steam is no longer exiting out around the head gasket. I pulled the head, scraped an amazing amount of crud out from the cooling passages. I installed a new head gasket, sprayed the copper sealant all over it, torqued it down and…. It’s much better now. Along with the shortening of the leg a total of seven inches, which eliminated the two relief holes in the exhaust tube, it is much quieter as well. I haven’t taken the dory back out to the ocean yet, as she has become a pirate ship in my driveway, complete with black square rigged sail and cannon. (black plastic trash bag and PVC pipe) So as soon as Halloween is over I’ll splash her into the Pacific again and see how she runs.

[Francis]

I thought I had it all sorted out but after fifteen minutes of good strong running the seagull acted up again. I lost power, steam and had less water exiting out the block. Not again! After rowing back to the dock and towing it home I pulled the head off again. The new gasket did not show any signs of leaking and I did not see any cracks “tell tale black lines” indicating a cracked block.
Could broken rings have caused this? Do I pull it all the way down and have the block magna-fluxed to check for cracks?
Any ideas?
Francis, tired of rowing...