Hi

This is my first post on this forum.

I recently bought a second Sammy it is a 1990. It has oil in the radiator, (standard 5 speed transmission)
I am guessing it needs a head gasket. Does  the 1990 have the same head that is on my 87 Sammy. I have a spare
head and was thinking about getting it reworked so when I pull apart the '90 it will go back together
quickly with a fresh head. The 90 has the factory fuel injection, is there any things to watch out for
because it is fuel injected?
Before I start on the head removal, is there some preliminary checks i should do, so I have the best diagnosis
performed so I don't waste time/money and not fix the oil in the radiator problem.

Next item the shifter linkage is really sloppy, is this something that can be fixed while on the vehicle
or do I need to pull the transmission?

The 1990 is going to be dedicated for use with the Matt tracks that I had on the 87 during the winter
months, for the last 2 seasons  eventually I hope to post pictures with the rig playing in the snow, the snow is the only place I
will use the tracks.

any feedback will be appreciated

Thanks
Andy

Sloppy shifters in sammy's ( say that 5 times fast) are common and there's a simple fix that can be done without removing the trans, search for " shifter, shifter sheet, or shifter fix " there's bound to be more than a few threads dealing with this issue.
Sounds like you'll need a head gasket at LEAST, maybe the head will need resurfacing and block as well. Depends on if and how warped either of them got, of if anything is cracked.
Not sure about the differences in heads, Skyhighranger would know for sure, as I'm sure other Sammy guru's would.

Usually, when dealing with samurai tranny sloppy shifters, the problem is the locating bolt for the shifter (it is the bolt that threads into the rear of the shifter tower and the end of it sticks into a slot on the backside of the shifter).
I have never ran across a samurai tranny shifter that needed a tranny shifter sheet.  But that's not saying they don't go bad occasionally.
You can check out the shifter sheet and the locating bolt by just pulling the shifter boot inside the cab and removing the shifter.  You don't have to drop the tranny.

All samurai heads themselves are the same.  The EFI heads have a block off plate where the carbed fuel pump goes.  So of course they don't have a fuel pump on the head, nor do they have the carbed fuel pump rod in the head.  
The carbed samurais have a cam with a cam lobe on them to run the cam driven fuel pump.  I am not sure if the cam grinds are identical on carbed samurais vs. EFI samurais or not.  If in doubt, simply swap the cams, if you end up swapping heads (you do need to swap the cam before you put the head on, since the cam comes out of the back of the head).

If you pressurize each cylinder with compressed air (the cylinder you are pressurizing has to be at TDC on its compression stroke, or all the cam bolts have to be backed off from the valves so all are closed), then you should be able to hear the air leak into the radiator, or if you have coolant/water in the radiator, you should see bubbles in it when you pressurize the cylinder that has the blown head gasket.
If the pressurized cylinders test doesn't give you a definite blown headgasket indication, then it could be possible that it is an intake gasket leak (the intake gasket seals bolt oil and coolant and if it would happen to start leaking between two of the passages, then coolant could mix with oil and/or oil could mix with coolant).  But it is not real common for the intake gasket to start leaking like that.