Myself and many others have small block V8's in our AD trucks. Mine is a 52 panel and I have enough room for the big distributor and room to get my hand around it.
Did you fabricate a cross member seeing as how you said a stang II rack and pinion??
I used a motor mount kit from Classic Parts and ran my steering shaft thought my inner fender to a steering box I mounted on the outside of my frame.
Some folks use a 265 header on the driver side to get around the steering issue and there may be other remedies. If you can see photobucket pics check out my panel link below my signature line....or the other one is a google link that you can see.
I'd suggest doing a little more research before you have firewall/engine problems.
(FYI...I used my straight axle and put on power steering. Works great)
