You do have your poly offset towards the passenger side, right? I've put a few la small blocks in the late 30s & 40s cars, you can set them over far enough to clear any small block exhaust manifold. I don't know if you can set the poly over far enough, but if you raise it up and move it over, that might work. I'd prefer to move the engine around a little over buying a bunch of steering u-joints, but you got to do whatever it takes.

The LA motor series was developed so Mopar could install a V8 into the small engine compartment A bodys, the poly was too wide. As far as I know, Mopar never installed a poly into an A body. Gene