Technical Headers for a 1949 mercury

Hey guys, I’ve been relentlessly digging through the form looking for posts on headers or manifold options on 49-51 mercurys. I’ve got a pretty wicked exhaust leak on the passenger side of my merc in the manifold. However I haven’t found any useful information on what fits and what doesn’t. I hear from one group of friends that the fentons are the only way to go. Then I hear the modern fentons won’t fit. Then I’ve also got guys telling me to get a set of reds. Trying to do this on a budget for now so I can finally run my duals and breath easy in the car

 

I'm not sure on Fentons. Reds has been having contact issues that I don't know all the gist of.

The only possible issue I can see on Fentons is steering box clearance. Right now I am not getting Red's web page to work http://www.reds-headers.com/default.htm To even search out a set of headers for Merc. Word is that they have been having phone issues for some reason or another.
Someone probably has a right hand manifold for a Merc sitting in their what the hell do I do with this box if you decide to just change manifolds. I may have one on my flathead.

 

I installed Red Headers on a 8BA in a '51 Merc a number of years ago. They clear the steering box fine.

 

Here’s red’s headers, I have these on my’50

 

Finally got around to reaching out to Red’s about the headers. They were kind enough to send me part numbers for the headers, gaskets and hardware. However their new website is very hard to navigate, the part numbers don’t even populate in the search. Scrolled through all 300 of their products but nothing pops up there either