Headers?
If you might go with a more powerful motor later go bigger. no sense having to buy the exhaust twice! My vote would be go with 2.5" plenty big for a larger motor but, won't really cost you much hp over a smaller pipe.
And for the record my long tubes don't scrape, my wires don't melt and the sparkplugs are not hard to change. They did take me a while to get on because the manifold bolts had 39 years of rust on them.