Suggest getting the right book to go with your engine. I used "How to Rebuild Your Smallblock Chevy" when I did mine last year. get the Tom Monroe How to Rebuild Your Small Block Ford for yours. Great book.
If this is the first time, I would photo everything prior to removal.
I bag each and every bolt, or group of bolts, and label the bag with a Sharpie or paint marker. Same for small parts. I start this when removing stuff in the car. Use plastic sandwich bags.
Repeat, bag and label everything!
For stuff that has to stay in the same order, such as main and rod caps, punch mark them with numbers or dots to make sure you put them back where they came from, after they are all nice and clean.
For the cam, you must have the lifters out, timing chain, fuel pump and distributor out, and it should pull out the front. Make sure it does not hit the bearings on the way out. A Ford 289 has a cam retainer, held by two bolts. Remove the fuel pum eccentric, the cam gear, and the two bolts and cam retainer plate. Keep the bolts, the heads are shallow so they clear the cam gear!!!!! Make sure you note the orientation of the cam retainer plate, it is meant to go on only one way.
Pay close attention to the oil plugs behind/adjacent the plate, so you get them right upon reassembly.
I usually let the machine shop do the freeze plugs or leave them in, unless you have had cooling or oil system probs. I have redone several engines without touchiing them. 302's to be exact.
But the larger ones can be punched in on one side to turn them, then grabbed and pulled out. The smaller ones, you can drill and put in a screw to remove Others may have better methods for this.
