I tried with 0.8.6 on Sunday after Skaro posted the discrepancies between the nodes, but got stuck on block 163*** as well. Didnt mess around further, but messaged this thread to jtimon and maaku. Saw jtimon mention on IRC about doing/testing? some client updates on 27th.. dunno if its related.
Got some oldschool festivities this week around the town, so I'll try the newer client during next week... but hopefully we get a response before that from the devs
*edit: typo