[kger]

I went to adjust the valves on my '81 SC yesterday morning and discovered 3 broken head studs on the exhuast side (2 in the passenger-side bank, 1 in the driver's). Needless to say, I'm feeling a rich mixture of sad, panicked, and lost today.

I'd love some help thinking through my options here, and how to navigate the decision tree from square 1 (3 studs in an oil pan, car still on jack stands).

I figure my options are:
1) Replace head studs only
2) Top end or full rebuild.
3) replacement engine (3.2 maybe?), sell my core and sacrifice matching numbers originality (car has a color change)
4) sell the car as-is and take a hit on the head stud issue. This option sucks.

Big Questions: What are the steps I need to go through to determine the extent of work needed? What is the right order of operations to diagnose this (i.e. should I button everything back up and do a leak down test or get the oil and filter analyzed to determine bottom end/ring health, or can/would that all be checked when the engine is torn down to get to the studs anyway)? What is the range of costs I should be expecting in 2018.

I might have space to do the work myself, though I am a fairly novice mechanic (5 years experience on a BMW airhead bike and an e30) and have never opened an engine. But, I'm in the SF Bay Area and have access to good mechanics and shops.

Some background on my car:
-177k+ miles (ODO broke a while back, but car was owned by elderly man and sat for a few years before I purchased it).
-Car ran well until now, no odd noises and pulled strong and smooth. I just drove it from LA to SF during a move last month.
-Has Carrera tensioners, turbo valve covers, MSD ignition.
-It has been burning/losing oil fast - about a quart every 400 miles. There is no noticeable smoke while running, just an occasional large puff right at startup, but there are some leaks (rear-end crankshaft seal, mainly) that could be dropping significant oil when running.
-Clutch is near the end of its life
-CIS has some air leaks but runs well after about 1 min at start.
-Otherwise the car is in good shape. 915 shifts well, new OK color-change paint job, interior is fine, I just rebuilt the entire brake system

I'd like to keep the car long term (at least another 10 years, but maybe /preferably for life).

Open to all thoughts! Thank you!