Actually with a little hammering your oil pan will clear your draglink(centerlink) on your First gen nova. I have a 1974 250 from a Nova in my 65 Chevy II. All I had to do was dimple the pan above the oil drainplug and it cleared just fine. i was going to swap everything around like you until Twisted 6 gave me a hint of what to do.

Simple but it works.