coolant Overflow / Blown head gasket

[agro1]

This past weekend while driving my car a bit hard I noticed allot of coolant that had overflowed and gone all over the engine compartment and motor. Stopped the car and cleaned it up, checked for leaks around the water pump, all fittings, hoses, clamps - everything was ok. Started it back up and the water temp skyrocketed past 100 C. Shut'er down and filled it back up (4 pints). Let it run with the radiator cap off and everything cooled down. Seems I had just a bit of overflow...Any thoughts ? I have an overflow catchcan and I thought all the overflow would have gone into that instead of causing the massive mess that it did in the engine compartment

That all sorted out - go back out...Halfway up the block and a massive PLOOM of white smoke coming out of the right sidepipe. Shut'er down IMMEDIATLY. Pushed it back home and trailered it to the shop. Blown head gasket on the # 8 cylinder head. Figured I might as well take the other side off, and sure enough it was getting ready to go in the exact same way the other side did. So - now what to do. Heads are going back to the builder for inspection and possible resurfacing on the one that blew. Block deck seems to be fine, however they used a graphite gasket on a 12:5.1 compression motor that I specifically said would be used for road racing. Is this normal ? Shouldn't they have used an O ring gasket ? Anything else I need to have looked at as a result of this before they put it back together ?? Thanks in advance FIXIT !!

BTW - The PSE 17" wheels were AMAZING...Although they do not have the classic vintage look, they turn the car into an absolute road devouring beast...I highly reccomend anyone who is planing to drive the Cobra hard put some on - they make an awesome difference.