I`ve had mine running in normally aspirated form, but only to make sure it all spun up nice & the belt drive didn`t fall off, check any oil leaks/water leaks etc etc etc,,,the plan was to turbo inject it, so it all came out again & we`re now fabricating all that efi turbo crap, pipes, intercoolers, plenum chamber, breathers, oil filler , etc etc etc, most of all that sh!t is done now.
I see no reason why an 8 valve wouldn`t be super cool to Turbo & way cheaper too, as there`s heaps of them around compared to the 16 valve jobs
I have 3 heads now & still looking around for more of em, but i`m not spending a big chunk just to make the bike wreckers rub their grubby hands with glee,,, if i stumble across another one for $600 then it`s mine, but i`m not paying $1200 for a whole donk again, bugga that!!!.
Here it is in one of my old Cooper "S"s with the old plenum & turbo etc,,,it`s way way ahead now & nearly ready for another fit into the Monaco,,,just that the Monaco isn`t ready for "IT" yet

that`s how it goes tho hey?
Here`s the Monaco about a year ago,,,it`s had a fair bit more done to it now & will be ready to take to the engineers pretty soon for stress testing & approval,,,will be Citric Acid colour,,,that late ford fluro light green lookin colour
soon people,,,very soon,,,body work is not my Forte, so i`m relying on my good friend & partner in crime--> Stewy to help with the de-seaming & re-paint, but we`re both too busy Racing Down Hill mountain bikes

we`ll be focusing on the beast again very shortly.,,,we`ve done a big spirt of work on his 1600cc cross flow 6speed A-series & should be at the Qld Mini Muster, but i won`t take the Bimmer Monaco till it`s ready
cheers guys & get on the Bimmer Band wagon, , , , it`s way cheaper & way better than a lot of those jap conversions, (well in my books it is anyways) & yeah, i`d be pretty keen to do a comparison on --->performance/value for money/effort/handling with a jap engine conversion

should be cool to see hey?