A reasonable set of headers will be cheaper than a set of long branch manifolds, but will be a maintinence problem. Keeping bolts tight, gaskets blowing out, the ticking of leaky headers to name a few. Those exhuast bolts on Pontiacs are a pain to get to! The long branch manifolds will not flow as good as quality set of headers, but will be much quieter, very low maintinence. Bite the bullet and get the long branch manifolds, you're alreay committed to the hobby of muscle cars, it's a given that large sums of money is going to be tied in the project. Do it right!
