I pulled the head on my broken motor, mostly to see what it took.
The only real problem I had was trying to get one of the headbolts out that was obstructed by the camshaft, if you don't remove the camshaft towers beforehand.
That being said, I didn't have to release the spring tension on each of the cam rockers, as that engine had died by breaking the cam towers when timing skipped. (Not my fault! Previous owner did it, I swear!
)