Craig, with all due respect for your optimism, if you're seriously interested in learning the pattern then budget time and money for crashing some planes. Put the Fox in this plane, secure in the knowledge that by the time you know the pattern it'll be dust, and you'll have virgin mounts in the new one to mount a motor.
The motor mounts in the Noblarf aren't terribly good, so you might want to think in terms of just whacking them off flush with the firewall, maybe backing up the firewall with a layer of ply if indicated (I've never flown anything but hand-me-down Noblarfs the only Noblarfs I've flown have been hand-me-downs), and using an RC mount. This'll give you more flexibility for changing motors. This is also a pretty good repair option after the first time you crash the thing, because the motor mounts seem to be the first thing that comes off.
At worst (assuming the plane survives that long) you can always fill in the Fox-ish mounting holes and drill new ones whereever needed. Just glue dowels in the existing holes and drill new ones, respecting the fact that if you're trying to drill halfway over then the drill is going to want to wander.