Hi guys, have read thru some of the threads and keep hoping its not a cracked block , Bought a beautiful 1996 Chaparral in May, freshwater, garage kept, had my 2nd child about the same time, never got the boat in the water, only time out on it was for the sea trial and it ran great. Hauled it to the beach but never had a chance to use it with the baby and work schedule, so there it sat, would start it once in a while on the trailer for the curious neighbors who thought it was newer than it really is. Anyway was going to winterize it my self but never had and I/o before always outboards, So wife thought I should take it to a shop and have it done, Night before I took it I pulled the engine cover and rear seats so they would not get dirty or messed up, checked the oil, looked like it came out of the bottle. Took it to the shop and they called an hour or so into it and asked me to come on down and look at the oil, they had it in a clear bottle and the oil filter next to it, like like a swirled milk shake. I was bummed, they thought it could be head gaskets,intake gasket, or exhaust risers, has the old style bat wing one piece on it, so the finished the winterization and i took back to beach house. pulled the risers off they looked amazingly clean inside, took them home and filled them with UV dye and water let sit for 3 weeks would check once a week with a bore-scope and saw no seepage, so ruled them out(not saying they shouldn't be replace) just didn't think they were causing water issue, When shop did the winterization they did compression test had 180 psi on all but #5 that had 190, also supposedly some moisture on plug. they said that water could make the compression number higher and believe it may be intake,or head gasket but didn't think it was a cracked block as it ran very well. So 3 weeks ago went out and bought a new trailer so I could bring it home and work on it in my heated garage. I pulled the intake manifold which I thought came off too easy, as I loosened the bolts could here the gasket material stretching as the manifold lifted up, after all of the bolts were removed it pulled off with hardly any resistance, looked at the sealing area saw one little spot where water may have been getting under gasket but didn't leave a trail of any type into engine, Checked down by the lifters saw no obvious signs of a crack,( engine very clean inside and out, no sludge or varnish) I also now know why the oil didn't look milky on the dip stick, the dip stick doesn't actually go into the oil pan, it goes into a separate tube alongside then 90 degrees into the bottom of the pan, so it really never sees the oil in the sump,just the level.So today I decided to pull the head, found nothing under there that says it was leaking,Guts telling me probably the intake, so my question is should I take the head out and have them magnafluxed? speed shop wants 150.00 ahead, says they do a valve job and shave and true it up, or should I just get new gaskets which the Mercruiser dealer says all of the gaskets run approx 240.00 and throw it together and see what happens. The gasket material on the head and block is such a mess looks like a real pain in the butt to get off, was reading the Mercuiser repair manual and it says to coat new head gasket with super seal on both sides, what is super seal? is there any good way to get the block cleaned up so I wont have a leak after I put it back together due to a dirty mating surface? Sorry for the long thread, just wanted to get every thing out there so there isn't 10 questions asking about this and that.. I have pictures. Just a note this was a fresh water boat, that will be seeing salt and fresh water. Thanks for any help you could offer.