If you really want to spend the money to keep the truck stock and keep teh old 216 babbit beater I don't understand why you would want to put on a header to ruin the stock look. all you will get out of the header is a distinct sound of a split manifold. If you want to keep the sound and still sort of keep the looks you could have a good welding shop split the manifold so you would get the sound and still keep the original look from the top. Also on the older 216's the babbit was thicker and had more shims that could be removed to allow the bearings to be tightened than the newer versions. The newer versions had the thinner babbit because the thicker soft babbit would beat out worse at high speeds than if it was thinner. This advance resulted in less rod failures. It also resulted in less shims that could be removed to tighten the bearings so the rods had to be rebabbited more to help take up the slack. Whoever rebuilds the engine should know what they are doing with this engine because the splash trays and tubes need special attention to insure they aren't bent. If the oil pick up on the rod cant get to oil in the tray the rod is history.
The reason that the Dip System went by the wayside was that the pressure system got more oil to the bearings so the metal of the crank and the very thin coating of babbit on the inserts never touched each other if everything goes like it is supposed to. (I had a 307 Chev that I put 80K miles on after changing inserts and the Inserts still had the oxide coating on them without even getting polished up but I kept the oil clean). Whatever you do with the engine the most important thing you can do to make the engine last is to make sure you change the oil often and keep it clean on the inside.
