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I have this same problem really bad with my '62 Valiant, which I believe actually has a narrower engine bay than your car does, and to make matters worse, I've stabbed an LA engine into it.
My exhaust pipe burned the plastic off my park lock cable the first time I ever drove the car! Did you ever price a new cable, assuming you could find one, which maybe you couldn't?
I've already had to resort to using the T'flite Patty (Pat Blais) trick of enclosing the cable in rubber fuel line and clamping it at both ends. To prevent the fuel line that is enclosing the cable from burning on the exhaust, I've got it wrapped in fiberglass tape. Not only does it look terrible, it still leaks! I can't figure out why it leaks. That is my next repair project.
A fellow FABO member suggested (but I've never tried it), is to use a longer cable, maybe one from a C body, and rather than running it up to the firewall right next to the exhaust, instead run it lower and horizontally toward the front of the engine compartment, and then loop it back to the firewall. That way theoretically you could avoid coming anywhere near the exhaust.
I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with this, and I sure hope somebody has some words of wisdom for us. I may try using a park lock cable from a C body, as I described above.
