Cliff, I hear you about the "tangle of piping" that the AIR system represents. It is a mess & ugly at that! That is one of the reasons my SSW headers are still in the box in my living room. Where I live the smog police will not pass a car without it's OE smog equipment....no emission inspection, no registration, no plates, no play. Until I get those tubes installed I can't put mine on.
Thanks for answering my Q about the sockets. Yea I have a set in 3/8" & 1/4" of the u-joint kind. A friend of mine that is a dealer tech has a set that use the c/v joint principal....they are sweet, real smooth and you can do some extreme angles of attack without them binding.

Tom