Duramax bites the dust - Blown head gasket @ 102K miles

That's a lot of cabbage to replace head gaskets....If it was me (and I had another daily driver to use for now) I would put it in the garage and go at it. At 100K miles, I would take this opportunity to go through the top end of the motor....valve cover gaskets, send the injectors out for cleaning, hoses, t-stat, anything else that was due for maintenance cleaning or replacement.

Is there something specific to a diesel that makes this job much harder than on a gasser?