One day at a time… one part at a time.
I’ve done the rabbit hole and come through it. Had my head off twice till I finally listened to my gut and ignored the men telling me nothing was wrong… ended up pulling my pan and found metal. Popped up the pistons from the offending poor read cylinders...
Could be like Chris said and the deck wasn’t planed. Often between 3 & 4 the head tends to warp and that’s where the gaskets blow. It’s the thinnest point between cylinders.
You might want to get out of buying 30+ year old vehicles. PO’s tend lie/exaggerate the truth often because they want a sale. If they didn’t need the money and know that have a highly sought after vehicle then less white lies might be told.