'68 Motor Build questions

[daddybooz]

Guys, its been a while since I've been on busy with kids and finally getting to my motor build. I picked up a virgin 400 small block for a case of "America" and have been buying parts ever since! I'll get into all of those a little later...

1. The PO had a cobbled up mess for a throttle return spring set up. I've been looking around vendors and all throttle brackets I find are for GM style cables. Mine has a rod from pedal bracket to the carb. What kind of set up from rod to carb or send me in the right direction?

2. The PO had installed headers, with this build I will not see the benefits of headers and want to go with Vette style cast manifolds. This is a 2wd long bed. I'm assuming the center dump, 2 1/2" style is the way to go, and heat/starter issues?

Thanks in advance for any help!