So question, if you where to do it again, would you go the same route?
Yes. Reasons:
It's new and ready to bolt on - doesnt need painting, straightening, or strengthening.
The K opens everything up and looks better - somewhat subjective.
It's powder coated and round stock so extremely easy to clean & no passages for oil to sit in.... how many times have you spilled oil on the stock K, wiped it, and thought "I got it all" only to come back 2 minutes later with oil leaking out of a crevice?
It's more ridgid than stock - based on QA1's report but looking at it, believe them.
It has tow hooks - thought this wasn't a big deal but have used them several times now - sure you can hook onto the stock frame or other parts of the car, but a dedicated hook sure is convenient.
Only downsides I can think of:
Not original - doesn't matter at all to me.
Cost - I bought it from Mancini when they had their 10% off code so it was ~500 bucks... I then sold the stock K and recouped a little money there.
As for the clearance issues with a new hemi.... I have a hemi in my charger and knowing where the filter is on it, I can see where you might gain with the QA1 K-member. For my big block - I gained nothing to solve clearance issues as I had none, but I can say it makes working on things from below easier - anything on the lower front engine, the starter, those hard to reach header bolts, plugs, etc.
Ultimately I chose it because I looked into the other aftermarket systems, XV was the only one that I wanted but it was downright expensive. The others all have sacrifices - either putting stress on the shock towers where it wasn't designed, mounting the steering/rack in an awkward position & shimming it to barely acceptable specs, reducing turned radius, and overall not having 'bang for your buck'. I went with QA1/borgeson/hotchkis route because it got me 90% there for considerably less $$$.
