Maybe you should just do the head gasket?
If I were swapping in a donor motor I would want to check compression, then assuming it was good, do the oil cooler and the rear cam seal before the install, then do the front oil seals and the timing belt during the install, as well as pull the intake manifold and check over the breather hoses and the ventilation plate.
I like JFrahm's idea of buying a runner with a bad trans. Having a full parts car is glorious. The only danger is that you will find a better parts car than your normal car and then decide you have to do a trans swap instead of just an engine swap :) It happened to me... with a $300 parts car.
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