Pride gone... asking for help

Any non-trivial rust has to be gotten out. It's just the issue of the rust particles being an abrasive materials and chewing up the engine's innards. If it just on the top area of the head, and you get the head pulled off and all cleaned up and not get it down in the crankcase, then you have done yourself a biiiig favor.

Some light surface rust is OK, but it looks like heavy rust scale on some valve tips and in some pushrod cups in your pi\x. But I can't quite tell from the photo if it is rust scale or just oil crud; the photo angle is making it hard to tell. That is why I asked directly if it is rust. And if the rockers are not moving smoothly on the rocker shaft due to rust, that is bad enough rust to disassemble the shaft and rockers 100% for sure IMHO.