A good friend gave me a "Thunderbolt" 283 that had been in a '65 Studebaker and while tearing it down, discovered NO gasket under one of the heads! No wonder he said it wasn't running right, all those years ago. Also found three of the piston rods had their number stampings facing the other way and one, chewed-up lifter.
I'm going to take most of it to the machine shop in hopes the block will pass a magnaflux. I don't see any scoring on the cylinder walls, but can't imagine how someone could go to the trouble of rebuilding this and then leave the head gasket off! Must have had great compression on that side!