cranked it up briefly a couple of times yesterday, just to check for a few things. cooling system is still unplumbed (minor detail at this point, many more important things to be concerned with).
Did notice a few things:
b234f exhaust manifold exits *right* above the oil filter on a b230ft block. I assume an 8v NA one will too, there just doesn't seem to be much clearance difference there. Oil filter relocation and oil cooler delete coming soon (as in, this week).
With that in place, I'll attach the NA downpipe and restore the car to operational status. Gotta have it available. The turbo swap shouldn't take more than a weekend with all the other shenanigans sorted out, and obviously the hardest part is going to be getting the downpipe fab'd up. the rest of that **** will just bolt up, more or less.
since the question was asked, yes, it's running on LH at the moment. that will likely change in the near future, but I haven't gotten things sorted out enough yet to start the MS process.