Jay - you can put some pretty decent bends in those runners and not have major losses.  A dry intake runner is less sensitive than a primary header pipe.  I'm curious to see what you've come up with!

BTW - I'm putting the deposit on a new toy tomorrow.  Should have it in a couple of weeks!  It even has a fourth axis for when I get ambitious 



Now I don't have to hate you so much LOL!

Carl Holbrook used to do the 8-sleeve route on many of his Cobra Jet race blocks - brand new from the factory!  He claimed that the centrifugally cast sleeves held their shape better and gave him less blowby under the stress of racing.

Like Jay mentioned, he used the thinner .090" sleeves in this case.  I think I recall Carl saying that he bored and sleeved every other hole first, then came back and did the rest.  As far as where to put the step in the block, I have always been taught that it's best to support the sleeve from the bottom.  The fire ring from the head gasket pushes down hard on the sleeve, and it is well supported by the main bulkhead structure down low.  The head bolts tie in to structure down by the bulkheads too, completing the loop.  Up top you only have the head deck, which is now disconnected from the bores.  Hopefully it will work well for you though!  We're all learning here.