ask him if the windshield is fogging up as soon as the engine warms up? if yes then coolant near the firewall leak = bad heater core
also you might consider buying short block instead of tearing down the block and installing new components since it is not just walk through the park. It involves a lot of precision measuring and at the end remanifactured short block can save you a lot of money, time and stress. But if you really want to learn it is a perfect time to try.
manuals from autozone are good enough for that job, and if you get somewhere stuck ask here, we can give you more details and specs.