Brian,
Just wanted to say, your pic with the shifter rods installed on your tranny helped my problem. I had the link for 3-4 upside down
going off another thread that had OD tranny. (I'm getting ready to install my engine/tranny combo soon)
And just to add, I have Headman headers and they worked great for clearance issues, on my 440 anyway.
Thanks for the up to date posts/pics. Please keep em coming as you progress. I'm lovin it!!!