Head Gasket

I have a 65' dart 270 with an original 273, Carter BBD 2 barrel and true dual exhaust. I've had an issue with using oil, I have to add half a quart every tank or so, and I've added a little coolant once. it doesn't ever smoke that I can see, but when I start it up, the left pipe blows out a lot of moisture and soot until it gets hot, it will have a big puddle with black spots in it. the right side barely puts anything out. does this sound like a head gasket? there is no evidence of coolant in oil or oil in the coolant, and the plugs look pretty good, with slightly sooty base rings.
When i first bought the car, I replaced the intake manifold because it was weeping a little bit on the left side, i thought that may have been where i was losing oil. however, it didn't slow the loss.
the other symptoms I have are long long cranking before startup if it has sat for a few days, and a little popping on deceleration when it's hot.
I haven't had a chance to run a compression test yet.