I finally finished 3 days worth of cutting, fitting, and welding after putting my new manifolds in. The fit on the manifolds is phenomenal (but as everyone knows, exhaust work is always 'one thing leads to another' etc). Lots of room on all sides, perfect bolt placement and sizing, and plenty of room for spark plug access--possibly even slightly better than stock. They're beefy and heavy too. I smeared
Calyx all over them to keep them from looking like a saltwater attack the first time it rains.
I ended up buying Hooker headpipes to ensure a good fit with the manifolds, but as I stated earlier, they did not fit. They did, however, furnish me with perfect, beautiful flanges to use after a little butchery. It felt somehow sacrilegious cutting them up but I figured,
if Hooker sold only the flanges with a short length of straight pipe on them they'd probably be over a hundred bucks anyway. So, a shoulder-shrug later I had the saw out.
I opted for an H-pipe and the longer Magnamufflers to keep everything quiet. The current sizing is 2 1/2" all the way to the rear of the mufflers, where I tied into the 2 1/4" OEM tailpipe. I'm really happy with the sound!