1996 4.6 leaks coolant at head gasket at cyl. #1 exhaust port

Hi all, (mostly Robison)

my p38 is now slowly leaking coolant from the head gasket under the #1 cylinder exhaust port. i have 122k miles now.

Engine is running fine although last year i was on this board reporting a mysterious power loss symptom which went away on its own. it seems like now i have a slight overall power loss and my gas mileage is worse than usual--9.5 mpg.

can you guys speculate on my chances of maybe getting away with only doing a head job? or do you guys think from your experience that maybe i've slipped a cylinder liner?

Also, when i do take off the head, how to i check for a slipped liner? what does it look like? how to i assess the quality of the short block before decide whether to go for the full rebuild?

Any thoughts on this issue would be helpful.

Many thanks.

TD