Gen II 350 exhaust/trans linkage crash

[83 Two-tone Monte]

I'm a good ways into swapping a gen II 350 from a parts car into my 83 Monte Carlo with column shifter. I got the factory exhaust manifolds put on and discovered the driver side interferes with the trans linkage so I can't connect the pipe to it. I found a manifold for an 87-90 sbc which has the downpipe further front to avoid the linkage but it may interfere with the horizontal oil filter. Any ideas? I have a brand new dual exhaust for the manifolds so I don't really want to switch to headers

 

[565bbchevy]

I would personally switch to headers, just reduce them down to your pipe size and cut to fit.
SBC's respond well to a free flowing exhaust and as you add power (which you know you will) you will be happy you already have headers installed.