Ed:

Yes, I agree with that assessment. The reason I am making that choice is that at my current level of knowledge I am better prepared to deal with the problems of tuning and operating a carburetor than those of developing a functioning FI system and am reasonably certain I can make it work and am also willing to live with the limitations of a carburetor. As I progress this may change and I may be better equipped to handle the complexity of the FI induction. Right now I am aiming for a purely gravity fed carb not dependent on electrics at all.

In fact I was considering switching to a plugs up set up to make a gravity fed carb even more convenient. Beyond the new "side saddle" oil sump set up what other changes were necessary for you to get the engine to operate correctly on its side? did you need to modify any of the internal plumbing/oil galleries on the engine to cope with the 90 deg turn?

I will touch base with Oly for his input on the carb matter.

Michael in Maine, where it is still raining