I haven't had the pleasure(?) of removing a manual from behind a V8, left that to the experts when they did my 5spd conversion, but have removed several from behind the 4 cylinder.
The trick I found was to put a jack under the rear of the sump and remove the vertical tie rod at the front of the engine. Then having removed the radiator (otherwise it could get messy...), starter, throttle linkage, speedo cable etc and broken the exhaust, just undo the gearbox mounts and let the engine slowly tilt back on the mounts, which with a little juggling allows the 'box to come off relatively easily without having to remove the whole engine. Going back on is the same, but you may need to jack the front of the engine slightly to get the same angle.