HotWheelsBurban
Gotta have 4 doors..... Rawhide, TOTY 2023!
TBI motor has AC compressor on the passenger side. Vortec has it on the driver's side. Also the early TBIs, it's the R4 pancake compressor, Vortec has the DA6 or the Sander type.On mine the compressor is on the passenger side. Sounds like someone has been in there. OTOH mine is a '93 so that may have changed. Someone will know. As others have mentioned the wiper issue can likely be fixed by just heating up the solder joints on the board.
If you do have to go through a full rebuild I can see why you might want to "heat it up" a little while you are in there. My usual advice is to to get the basic truck functional and then add the fun stuff, but you seem to have the experience to avoid the usual pitfalls of putting speed gear on an unsound motor. Good luck with your project, it looks like a nice truck.