Thanks to all for the encouragement.  I'm inspired to give the head
gasket repair a shot.  It appears my van has AMC heads, not sure how old
they are though.  I don't have any coolant leaking from the water
jacket, but I presume I should replace that and the head gasket at a
minimum.

I came across this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ETH8kYJv94 -
shot last week.  He is shooting one video each day he works on it - the
last was spent fighting exhaust bolts.  I'm pretty sure mine aren't that
bad - or I hope not.

Tom