Welcome to HTC, I haven't seen Chris posting lately. Hope he is well.. Matt @ Moe's and Joe @ OCP can also answer many of your questions.
Still around, just not active as much. Everybody is well on my end, added to the family a beautiful little girl, 4 months old now :smitten: The truck is still running decently, but started to get back into my old favorite hobby of firearms and competition so the truck is just being a daily driver now
So to answer a few questions-
Welcome and glad you had an enjoyable read, that's a ton of pages haha. I have a seperate and detailed write up on this forum on everything needed to convert to the LX timing cover. It's a simple process with only a few modifications and I'm very happy I went that route, it really cleans and opens up the engine bay. If you can find used parts it's not terribly expensive.
https://www.hemitruckclub.com/forum...timing-cover-to-a-car-timing-cover-29654.html
My personal experience from trying to reuse my old 03-08 intake manifold wasn't great. I did a slight port and polish on my eagle heads, and the manifold I was using looked like it had some slight imperfections from possibly over heating on the previous used motor I had taken it off of. The ports don't line up every good for one so I don't know how much that effects the performance. With all those little issues added up, I ran into vacuum leak issues around the intake gaskets that made the truck undriveable. I can't be positive if it was from the ports just not lining up correctly in the first place, or if it was from the slight port job, or if the intake was possibly warped from overheating, but it did not work out for me at all, I had to immediately convert to the eagle intake manifold.
I am using injectors from a Dodge Neon SRT4 stage 0 or stage 1, it's been forever so I don't remember the exact designation. I think it's necessary to upgrade to a slightly larger injector with a bigger engine. I'm not an expert on that to be positive.
Eagle Valve covers are hard to find. Check ebay or Car-Parts.com to search junkyards nation wide. LX forums has a pretty big classified section for hemi parts, they pop up occasionally.
The MMX spacers are 3/8" or 1/2" thick, I can't remember off hand. I do remember machining them thinner after I got the intake fitted right to the engine. I tried heating the bottom of the eagle intake manifold and forming it to the coolant passage bump but I didn't have much success. I got a small indent formed in that helped with clearance, and I know of another guy that got his all the way formed where he didn't need spacers, but I wasn't that successful.
I'm still using a bone stock throttle body. I'm sure I'm at the point it could use an upgrade, just haven't wanted to spend the money on one.
From all accounts I spent researching, eagle headers won't fit without a ton of bending. I used a custom set from a power wagon truck which required a lot of heat and bending, and it wasn't a fun time to say the least. It took 2 torches and 3 guys to get them bent to the right shape. And after all that heat it warped the flange too much to sand straight with a belt sander. I think I have an exhaust leak around the header now from it.
Any other questions, feel free to ask and I will get back with what I can help out with