New Member Question About Engine Swaps

Alright, so alot of you are gonna say, shouldn't you buy the Tacoma before you start swapping the engine? To that I say, yeah... probably.

But anyways, I'm a newbie here, I like to think of myself as halfway handy. I was a frame engineer for an OEM, decent on brakes and suspension, able to trouble shoot the fuel system (usually...), but recently I've been curious about swapping a V8 into a second gen.

Just curious if you guys had some general resources, I've found some builds for specific swaps but I'm more curious about general engine knowledge. What's the best way to grow my knowledge without owning 40 years worth of trucks and working in a shop?

I'd like to learn a little bit about what it takes to choose the right engine for a swap (besides the obvious ones of power, torque, and physical engine size). I'd also like to get some idea of the general process and what it takes in terms of knowledge and capability.

Are there good resources online? Or should I just hunker down and read 100 hours of performance and 4x4 threads and hope I glean some info?

I've also thought about buying a $500 POS at a junkyard so I can just start wrenching and tearing things apart and learn by experience.

Any advice is welcome. Thanks in advance.