Block huggers vs. Long Tubes

I would go with the block huggers. Long tubes are not needed and from what i have heard they are just a royal pain like you described. If you want to stick with the long tubes you will need to do some new fab on them to make them fit like they should without getting damaged at all. I hear you on the TTI's costing a fortune. I plan on changing around a set of reasonably priced headers or drawing some up and having my buddy machine me some flanges and making my own.