Terry,
My '54 pick-up has the same setup. The original manifold gaskets worked fine after some adjustments (see below). Maybe individual gaskets look nicer but I would think they would be harder to install (due to falling out of place). In fact, I have heard people recommend a one-piece gasket (instead of the standard three piece gasket) but have never been told a source.
After grinding the mounting tabs (on the Fenton headers) to match the height of the tabs on the Offy intake, my guess is that you will have a vacuum leak with the set-up unless you have ground the bottom edge of the intake manifold. The intake rides up on the exhaust when they are bolted on. This is hard to see but it results in an intake (vacuum) leak at the gaskets. I ground the bottom edge of the Offy intake a little at a time, until I could easily slide a piece of paper between the mounted intake and exhaust manifolds.
It's odd that none of the companies that sell this combination tell you about this in their catalogs, but they seem to know about this when you call them with questions about the vacuum leak. It's also interesting that the companies tell you that you have to grind the manifolds to get them to fit but the manufacturers tell you not to grind.
By the way, I used thich stainless washers instead of the mushrooms but I think the mushrooms would look and work better (I could not get the mushrooms to work). Also, if you are using original Rochester carbs be sure to use original carburetor insulators/spacers and make sure you put them in place with the vacuum indentation up (and lined-up with the vacuum hole in the bottom of the carb).
Good luck, Tim
