Clutch replacement help - remove trans, bellhousing, headers??

[emmvette]

Time to work on the clutch, it's pretty much toast and undriveable. Car is a '90. Put it up on the lift today and am sort of stuck before starting. Took apart everything inside and moved to the underneath - with my cars mods / setup, I don't see how to get to the clutch easily. See pics below, does anybody else have old headers like this (they are one piece, looks like they were fabricated to the existing CATS). I have been led to believe these headers where made by Calloway.

I have two basic questions -

1. After the ZF is removed, does anybody know if the bellhousing will move 3" toward the rear of the car without hitting the fiberglass tunnel up top? It looks like it will hit the tunnel and that it won't come out. It would be very close.

2. Standing at the rear of the car underneath looking up at the bell housing (looking toward the front end), can the bell housing rotate clockwise a bit?

I'm guessing the engine was put in with the headers/cats and bell housing all installed. The header bolts are not all accessible from the top or bottom, and the headers are one piece including the CATS. So the bell housing will not drop straight down because it will hit the CATs.... But the CATS can't come off without pulling the engine to get to the header bolts.

If the bell housing will slide back 3 -3.25", then it will clear the CATs and it can be lowered and I can continue. There is only about 1/8" clearance between the CATs and the bell housing, maybe a 1/16" more on the driver's side. Is this how the ZR-1 left the factory or are my CATS in a different place than normal.

My question #2 is because there is an aluminum bump out on the bell housing on the drivers side near where the slave cylinder is that also won't clear the CAT unless I can rotate the bell housing clockwise about 30 - 40 degrees.

Any thoughts on this? Any Callaway owners that have shorty one piece headers and CATs that might have run into this? I really don't want to pull the engine just work on the clutch. I was already feeling like I didn't have time for the "small" project. I don't know that I can take on that large of a project - especially this time of the year with an uninsulated garage - its getting cold outside....