Ok, I went as far as I could without the head bolts. They should be here about the middle of the week, along with the heater hose and a couple of the intake hoses.

Regarding the my timing question (cam gear location), I turned the crank by hand a few more times, and my original alignment marks on the sprockets/chain (also marked both timing chain rails just for the heck of it before disassembling), and all were dead on. So, I can only guess that I'm good to go.

I'll let you guys know how it turns out with my broken intake manifold vacuum ports.