Thanks for the replies and advice everyone. I guess I was looking for someone to tell me that it wasn't necessary when I knew in my heart that it was?

So far, the plugs are out, the block plate is on as is the flywheel. I will bolt the bellhousing on and get the dial indicator set up. I have a buddy who says he can come by this weekend to help spin the engine while I write down the readings. It seems pretty straight forward from there. I have watched numerous YouTube videos on the subject.

Thanks for the heads up about the size of the dowels. I was looking on Summit's page and they list Ford/Mopar as .500", but if you look at the reviews there are comments from the Mopar guys saying that are too tight and needed to be modified. This saved me a HUGE amount of frustration in the near future. I will order the correct dowels from the link provided above.

Hopefully, I'll update this thread later in the week with good news. Thanks again!