Long tubes are great for performance and sound, but they do have a couple of drawbacks in a close fitting engine compartment. In my '59 half ton with the stock frame and suspension and the engine on stock mounts, the clearance between the headers and collectors (long tube Cragar's that I bought in about '73, very similar to these: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ho...et/model/truck) and the frame was pretty tight; on the drivers side, it was close enough that the steering box got hot and the grease in it would "cook" and get thick and stiff, and the oil filter got pretty warm, too. I made it a habit to change the grease in the steering box when it would start to feel like it had lumps in it. I had heat shields on both the driver and passenger sides, but the clearance was just too close even with them. On the passenger side, it caused problems with the starter, and it might cause some with the fuel line running inside of the frame rail. Those headers were shot when I sold the truck, but if I had kept it, I was thinking about using some other style of header, maybe a "tri-Y" style, or even center dump "shorties" with the transition to two and a half inch head pipes before the turn to the rear of the truck; that would add almost two inches of extra clearance, and on the drivers side, they could be bent up to give extra clearance by the steering box. In truth, there are so many different designs, and approaches to these problems that a whole book could be written about them, and if one were to collect and publish all of the things that have been written and tried in the past forty or so years, it would fill volumes. Just be aware of the clearances around the important pieces of "the works".