I appreciate all the words here.
Race, I'll be more than happy to help you if you're wanting to start an engine project.
The very first engine I built was a 425 cubic inch Windsor. Never started with a small block Chevy, or a 302, or rebuilding a stocker....jumped straight into grinding cylinder skirts so rods would clear, drilling/tapping for lifter spiders, assembled bare aluminum heads, etc, etc. I was hooked. If this old bald-headed dummy can do it, anyone else can.
I will say a few words of warning...on the scale of "difficulty", I would put the FE pretty far up on the list. There are several nuances and pitfalls that can bite you in the hindend, but if you're aware of those and take your time, it can be done. Just accept the fact that nothing will fit ahead of time and you'll be just fine.
A couple of quickie FE points that separate them from the rest of the Ford engine world:
*The block is skirted, which means that the rear main seal has multiple pieces. Instead of just two seal halves, you have two seal halves, plus two side seals.
*The intake manifold makes up a portion of the cylinder head. The valve cover straddles them both. The pushrods go through the intake, instead of the head. Since there are multiple mating flanges here, you have multiple angles to check and modify to get a correctly sealed top end. The distributor also goes through the intake manifold, which means there's yet one more thing to check before bolting it on.
*FE cylinder head valve layouts are symmetrical about the vertical axis. This causes the valve reliefs in some pistons to be in different locations. A lot of the aftermarket pistons have symmetrical valve reliefs so it doesn't matter, but some of them are orientation-specific.
*The rear cam cup plug goes in backwards. This gets a lot of people and they end up driving them in the way that they're used to seeing on other engines and end up making a lathe out of the camshaft.
Sounds like a fun project.