Starter height

We used to have a slant 6 and we had two different starters we used on it. One was like a typical Mopar starter with the reduction gear. The other was off of a 170 parts engine we had. It had a direct drive, no reduction gear housing. This would make the starter mount lower wouldn't it? I can see where it could make a difference with headers on a slant since it's right there in the engine compartment next to the exhaust manifold.