Did DSS put the heads on....? I got a longblock from them and 20k miles of problem free driving. I used the ford graphite head gaskets. THey are softer than the metal ones and cope well with block flex and the different expansion rates of iron block and alum. heads. They are pretty cheap also. However i hear really, really good things about cometic head gaskets but have no first hand experience. They are supposedly reuseable too, but there also very pricey.
No smoke, it does consume coolant and about a quart of oil per oil change, I will take the old motor apart in a few days and will let you know about the timing cover, it's what i have always thought it was because it doesent overheat and i even performed a combustion gas test for the coolant to see if it was a HG and it was fine.