Jay Browns excellent book "The Great FE Intake Comparo" has a section covering numerous different factory FE exhaust manifolds, and several sets of headers. The tests were performed on Jays engine dyno, with various levels of HP engines, and the factory 390 "GT" style exhaust manifolds were real dogs, basically no better than the more common low performance "log style" exhaust manifolds as used on full sized cars and pickup trucks. The 428 Cobra Jet exhaust manifolds are certainly better performing than the 390 GT versions, but still lag behind most headers. As far as I am concerned, hanging a pair of the GT exhaust manifolds on the great TFS heads, will eliminate much of the gains of the TFS heads. So if he is dead set on not using a decent set of headers, the CJ exhaust manifolds will be a better choice that the 390 GT pieces, but he will still be losing a fair bit of power. And yes, the 428 CJ exhaust manifolds should fit a 67/68 Mustang just fine. The 1969 exh. manifolds are much more common, as there were many more 428 Cobra Jet engines factory installed by Ford in 1969, than both 1968 and 1970, combined.

On my 59, I ran BFG T/As for 6 years, 215/70R15s on the front , 275/60R15 on the rear. Over the winter, I bought new wheels (US Indy Aluminum Slots), and bought new tires, I have Mickey Thompson "Sportsman S/T in 215/70R15 up front, and another pair of BFG T/A Radials in 275/60R15 out back.  All 4 pairs of tires have "Made in USA" on the sidewalls.

Unless things have changed, I am pretty sure that drilling ANY hole in a SFI certified bellhousing renders the SFI sticker invalid, and the bellhousing itself can no longer be recertified. The only exception is if the hole was put there by the original manufacturer, and was SFI certified with the hole already in place. Many have drilled a much smaller 3/8" hole in the backside of the bellhousing , for the ability to adjust static spring pressure , but to put a hole in the path of a  rotating flywheel and clutch, especially anything approaching 3/4" , is something that I would absolutely NOT do, UNLESS you have printed documentation on a NHRA letterhead stating that such a modification is acceptable. On both my FE and SB Fords, I have checked clutch air gap thru the clutch fork opening. Certainly not as convenient as a hole in the bottom, but since Lakewood no longer offers a FE scattershield , turning one into scrap metal with a drill bit is certainly not something I would consider doing.

Early 63-64 used cast cranks , except for some early high riser race stuff. The steel $ sign cranks came on mid  late 64 , but much more common by 65 and used in the 65 up engines. You dont say if its fresh ready to go or std needing fixed but $500 to a grand is where it would fall.  Yes they have core in them and are hollow. Some have press in some screw in plugs.

My understanding was that the 68 hydraulic lifter W code 427s, as well as the "300 HP" 427 marine engines were also equipped with cast crankshafts.

I have TFS heads and FPA headers on my 428. Although using 2 bolts per port may well be adequate, I always try to get in as many bolts as possible, did the same with my 428 CJ 16 bolt heads. I have never had any 16 bolt FE headers that I was able to get every single bolt into, as there is usually at least 1 tube that blocks a bolt hole in the header flange. That said, I can usually get at least 13 or 14 bolts in per head, and I can also say, that doing so, I have never had a header gasket leak on a FE in almost 50 years. And that was because I installed  a set of 428 CJ heads on my 66 Fairlane GTA 390, that had Cyclone headers made for the 14 bolt "GT" heads, and at that time I was not aware of the exhaust port height differences. But if you do choose to use 2 bolts per port, make sure that they are opposite from each other. As in, the 2 vertical bolts, or the 2 angled horizontal bolts per port.

The "Best" FE roller  rockers would be either the Jesel or T&D shaft rockers. They are expensive, and totally un necessary for a hydraulic cam.

Seems that there are THREE Holiday Inns around Muncie. The one on W Bethel in Muncie, as well as two Holiday Inn Expresses, one on Homeland Blvd in Muncie, and the other on Holiday Drive in Portland . Kinda confusing!

It`s too bad that the people that bought Jerico chose to ignore so many of their loyal customers, and eventually ran the company into the ground. I had 2 Jerico DR4s that I ran from 199 thru 2018, and was very happy with the transmissions, and had no problem getting parts from Jerico when needed. But when I broke a mainshaft on the Jerico in my Fairmont, when I called them to order a new mainshaft, they told me that they were no longer going to supply parts for the earlier models, and suggested that I buy the latest DR4-4 version. Luckily a buddy had an extra mainshaft in his stash of parts, so I was able to finish the race season. But since I felt that Jerico had turned their backs on a loyal customer, and hundreds of others, rather than give them my money for a new transmission, I bought a barely used G Force G101A 4 speed. In 7 years of running the G Force, I have not done anything besides change the fluid, but at least it`s nice to know that if and when I do need replacement parts, they will be available. Sad what Jerico did, as it appears that the racers running Jerico DR4s greatly outnumbered the G101A drivers, but for whatever reason, Jerico chose to ignore their customer base. I am guessing that there are enough guys with Jerico parts laying around, that they will still be guys running DR4s for many years to come, and maybe somebody will try to revive the company or start making parts for them, but in the meantime, I am guessing that as DR4s break, many will be cannibalized for parts.