Steering box or R&P?

[mechanixman]

Hey folks
As I've been working on my steering, I've been running into some fairly serious problems. To start, my box is so close to the column, that I don't think I can normally connect the box to the column. Secondly, the box sits too high and hits the intake manifold. This not only makes it a pain to get to both the dipstick and sparkplugs, but also put the pitman arm out into the movement of the wheel. If I turn too far to the left, the arm will hit the tire.
I could MAYBE make it work, but that would involve making a notch in the frame, and trying to fit the steering box halfway under the manifold, and still tucked in next to the block.
Now I've done so much to front axle, that I would really rather keep it. It's pretty cool! I was racking my brain on a solution when I remembered that someone (I think on this forum) installed a rack and pinion right onto their straight axle.
I tried looking over the interwebs looking for what people's opinions were of these steering set up. And it seemed everyone's opinion was pretty much 50/50. With some people saying DON'T mount the rack to the frame! I know that's already asking for trouble, but I want to know if it's a viable option over the original steering, and what type of rack & pinion setups should I be looking for?

Thanks in advance