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Maybe odd for someone like me to suggest this as my daily is rebuilding these engines.
However, you definitely can do this. These are not hard engines to rebuild. They are shrouded in myths about how difficult they are. But if you study how and why, they are really simple.
Here is my advice. And you can email me for any answers to any questions. I'm here to help. I am even thinking of having a professional type school next year. It wont be cheap but it will be conducted in my pro shop with all my experience and knowledge available.
BUILD IT ON PAPER FIRST.
Make a list of the tools required. Don't cheap out. Get good tools. but don't over buy either. A really good solid engine stand is a must, or a solid bench where you can bolt the cradle to.
Decide on a clean area in which to do the build. Plenty of bench space too.
Get in the habit of cleanliness. Clean up after each process.
Break the build into easy to do processes. Disassembly, inspection, cleaning, measuring, machine repair, parts sourcing and assembly. After each process, clean up. The disassembly can be messy, but if you take your time and have drain trays etc, you can keep it clean. Go to Lowes or similar and buy the shop paper towels. Go the restaurant supply stores and buy "bussing" trays and some cutlery tray for small parts.
Understand there will be some parts of the build you may not be able to do yourself. Cleaning is always a bear. You can do the heavy lifting here, scraping and getting rid of the heavy dirt. Lowes or HD have large plastic trays that are used for mixing concrete. Buy one of these and use this to clean the large pieces. You can buy solvent in 5 gal drums from TSC. Just pour it back into the can after use and dispose of it correctly. Once you have the heavy dirt etc removes, have the parts hot tanked and cleaned in a professional wash tank. BUT, make sure its regularly cleaned and the water and soap changed often. Otherwise you will be washing your parts with dirty greasy water. When this is done the galley plugs etc should be removed. In other words, get it professionally cleaned. The cleaning of engines is the most time consuming part of the build. It should never be shortcut'ed either.
Inspection and measuring maybe difficult without the correct tools and test equipment. This is where you should rely upon a good machine shop to do the work for you.
Expect to replace all bearings, chains, chain rails, full upper and lower Gasket kit, chain tensioner parts, etc. The parts that probably will be attention will be the case, heads, crankshaft, rods, Cylinders, pistons, camshaft, rocker arms, to name just a few. Inspection will tell you this. But you may need help here understanding what does need attention. Some stuff is pretty straight forward. If you see scratches, gouges etc, you can bet these will need attention.
The assembly is pretty easy. Take it slow, make sure you have everything correct. If you have any doubts, stop and recheck. Again, break the build into smaller process. Assemble the crank and rods. Fit the Oil pump and shaft. Fit the crank and rods to the case. Glue the bolt the case together. This is understanding that all measuring has been done and is correct. You may want to use a pro shop to do all the measuring etc after the parts are repaired etc.
This is quite common for us to do. We do the final cleaning, inspection and measuring and repair work for many shops and end users. We then supply the bearings etc fit them and do all the final clearance checks etc. All the customer has to do is to assemble knowing all clearances are correct.
I believe the Cam timing gives many sleepless nights. I can honestly tell you, its only because of the lack of understanding of what is happening with the valve motions. This is actually very simple when you have an understanding of what is happening.
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