I am currently working with a 18F2685 (my old design) . My purpose was to validate the PBP 3.1 + MPLABX + mpasmx with this PIC I know quite well before making a jump to the 18F27K40.
I understand I will have to go to MPLAB X + PikKit 3 with no chance to stay with MPLAB 8, unfortunately.
My current MPLAB X version is 4.05, the last one available.

My next step is to understand the particularities of the 18F27K40 as explained in the .txt files delivered with PBP 3.1. It seems to imply PPS...

MikeBZH