oh, not to worry, progress will continue. a good friend in west palm (and guru to all us elky people here in FL) called me up and talked me off the ledge about the engine. I've had a few other things to take care of but have begun, slowly and carefully, to disassemble the engine and clean it a piece at a time. i won't be taking the heads off or the crank out but everything else is coming off. once it's cleaned i will reassemble it, put 4 quarts of trans fluid in the pan and turn the pump to get that through everything (atf has good cleaning properties), then take it back apart to clean out the dirty atf, reassemble with gaskets and pump good oil through. new seals, gaskets, etc everywhere.
yeah, i'm curious about what's in the pan myself - i'll bet it ain't gonna be pretty! scooping out the heads and lifter valley got enough crud to fill up an empty peanut butter jar! I have never seen an engine so filled with sludge.
the engine ran well with good compression before i found the sludge; i'm comfortable that a good, thorough clean out and wash down with new seals and gaskets will get it back on the road without problems.