Interesting... I wouldn't think they were so soft as to allow impact with the steering column. You'd think the Ford engineers would fix something like that. Guess it isn't a huge concern.

 

It only impacts the steering column when you have the (aftermarket) JBA shorties, the stock exhaust manifold is just fine.

 

Gotcha. Yea that makes more sense. Those JBA shortys take up a ton of space in there

 

I kept my stock mounts with my JBA's...I shimmed them up about 1/4" at the mounts just to be safe, but I've got all kinds of room around my steering shaft and haven't had issues with anything hitting anything else. My car has just a tick under 70K on it also.

 

Got the mounts installed last night. All went well minus a few trips to the store to pick up some random tools I really should already have, and a trip to the hardware store to switch out those Allen head bolts for a hex head.

Little more vibration at idle. Nothing uncomfortable or even annoying though. Nothing at all up high. I really notice it when I'm taking off from a stop, but other than that I never feel it.

Throttle response is vastly improved in 5th gear on the highway. The other great improvement is how smooth my shifts are now. No more trying to jiggle it into the right spot.