I've already disassembled the everything from the airbox down through the intake. I did this all with the engine in situ. I considered dropping it, but there we not much benefit, from my perspective. While contemplating alternatives, I would have had to drop it if I had got the Clewett route (which I still think is a fine direction to go, just not the one I chose).
One advantage I had in this decision was that I had already backdated the heater and removed the AC and it's mounting mess (hoses are still in, for now).
This process was quite easy - my notes say it took me just over 3 hours, and I was taking my time, learning and inspecting things as I went. Part of that 3 hours was invested in removing the fan, housing and alternator, since I wanted to dress it up a bit as part of the process.
As you'll see below, I found that my fan housing's small crack had grown (I know I over tightened the belt for a bit). it probably would have been fine for a while, but why chance it. I ordered a new magnesium casting from CarPoint. So far, that has worked out well.
I also ordered some Dow 19 magnesium treatment of the fan. My hope was to achieve the bronze color of treated magnesium, but that did not work out well. The worst case of this approach was that the Dow 19 treatment is a paint prep for magnesium, so I just masked the fan and painted it satin black.
Getting to all of the bolts, wires and hoses was a bit of a challenge, but nothing was overly difficult. The only really odd thing is that there is a mounting bracket for the fuel line, one of the wiring harnesses and another hose (can't remember which one) at the very front of the engine and the screw that holds it all in place happens to be a smallish hex head screw. There are pretty much no other hex head screws in the engine bay (save for the barrel nuts on the intake manifold), so it took me a while of get a good view of what it was!
Once everything was out, I commenced to cleaning the fan shroud and the rest of the top of the motor. This is another job that could have been done much more completely and much more easily had I dropped the motor. For now, it's an OK cleanup and I'll save the detailing for another winter.
I also commenced to fabricating an aluminum mounting platform, coming off the top of the breather, for the vacuum manifold I bought and the oil tank breather I bought. For now, I've tapped and bolted the aluminum platform together; it may get welded together before I'm done - not sure. Also, I've modified the oil tank breather with a drain tube and ball valve along with the 1" hose barb for the stock hose from the oil tank.
This is as far as I've gotten so far - about a week's worth of work most evenings after work.