This project started in the mid-1980's when the exhaust manifold cracked on
my 1965 Plymouth Barracuda. Since I was already planning on making some
performance upgrades, headers seemed a natural fit. I ordered a set of
headers from Clifford Research (now Clifford Performance) to fit Mopar narrow
A-bodies. To make them last longer, I had them aluminum coated.
However after over 10 years of service, they rusted out in spite of the
aluminizing. Probably the header wrap I put on them to keep the heat down
in the engine compartment didn't help either.
After much deliberation and research, I decided to replace them with a set of
Dutra Duals . I don't plan on selling my car so I wanted to avoid
the problem of headers rusting out or manifolds cracking. The following is
a chronicle of this adventure. This should take about 117 seconds to load
with a 28.8 kb modem.
For more information, visit: http://www.dutra.org/doug/doug-sl6-exhaust/doug's-sl6-exhaust.htm.
 |
My engine with the old leaking headers. |
 |
This huge hole made the car too loud to drive. Notice the wear on
the other set of headers from rubbing on the steering linkage. |
 |
I need to relocate my starter solenoid! Luckily, new rear manifold
flange easily clears the original starter so I don't need to buy the newer
compact starter. I just need to find a new home for the solenoid. |
 |
When I got the exhaust pipes hooked up I discovered I had an huge exhaust
leak that I could not stop at the muffler shop. It was a loud drive
home. The above picture shows that the bottom of cylinder #1's port is
hung up on the engine boss. |
 |
This is what the manifold's flange looked like when I removed it. So
much for trying to save the manifold gasket. |
 |
The new manifolds make the engine compartment look a lot cleaner.
The carb seemed to be running a lot leaner with the new exhaust
arrangement. Enriching the primary circuit made a big
improvement in the drivability. Yes, the new pipes are T304 SS. |
 |
This is new home for the starter solenoid. I made up a mounting
plate from aluminum to solidly mount the solenoid to the intake
manifold. All I had to do to the solenoid was flatten its bracket as
it was curved to match the diameter of the starter. |
 |
After trying to eliminate the off-idle bog I was having first with the
AFB and later to a lesser extent with the Quadrajet, I added heat to
intake manifold. This heater completely eliminated the bog and
I highly recommend keeping the manifold heat control valve in good working
order, especially when you are using a larger carburetor. |
