Head gasket

Not a real hard job. The biggest thing will be to keep all the vacuum lines sorted out. For that I suggest a camera and some colored tape. Better yet video as you proceed. It can make it much easier to reassemble if you can watch which parts came from where.

The bigger question is how far do you want to go with it. Personally I would not remove the cylinder head without doing the valves and seals. Then because it has higher mileage there is a question about cylinder ring wear. If the body is in good shape you may want to consider doing a budget rebuild on the engine. New rings, gaskets and a valve job. Possibly new bearings as well if they show wear. That would let you have a known engine and you could do the clutch at the same time. Price wise it depends on what you do. The method I suggested has no machine work to the block, just the valves and seats. Parts can be found at many places. Rock Auto has a re-ring kit with bearings for around $200.00. Do the timing belt, water pump and you would have around $500.00 into the engine parts. Or just the head gasket is about $10.00.

They are a neat truck, and they actually have character, unlike many of the modern vehicles that are all looking the same. With the big bonus of not having 5,000 feet of wiring and a computer behind every panel.