[JohnIL]

My plan for a new exhaust system escalated quickly!

When I bought the truck, it had an old rusty set of headers. I hate headers, especially old rusty ones. Luckily, the PO included a set of chrome ram-horn style exhaust manifolds. They were brand new, in the box. He bought them for another project and never got them installed. Long-term, I planned to replace the headers with the ram-horns and take it to my favorite local exhaust shop for a proper dual exhaust system. Short-term, I hacked off the obnoxiously loud 3" FlowMasters and welded on a pair of quieter 2 1/4" mufflers and a pair of turn-downs just behind the cab. That was much better, but the mufflers hung too low and the exits where too close to the cab for my liking. The temporary exhaust got me by for a season, but it was time for something better.

I mentioned in my last update that I was hoping to address the exhaust system in the next couple of weeks. On Tuesday, I called the exhaust shop to setup a appoint for sometime next week. That would give the whole weekend to remove the headers and install the new manifolds. The conversation with the cool custom exhaust guy went something like this.

Cool Exhaust Guy: "How about tomorrow?"
Me: "Wait, what? Tomorrow? Umm, I don't think I can be ready that soon."
Cool Exhaust Guy: "OK, how about Thursday?"
Me: "Umm, that might work. Let's try for Thursday."

I absolutely wasn't ready for that conversation. There's no way I could be ready over night, but I was cautiously optimistic I could get it done with a couple of evenings of work. I wasn't sure it was really doable, but I wasn't going to pass up a chance to get the exhaust done sooner rather than later.

As soon as I got home from work on Tuesday night, I headed straight for the garage. I started by trying to remove the headers. Before I committed to this whole thing, I wanted to make sure the rusty header bolts would budge and, if they did budge, I wanted to make sure they wouldn't just snap off in the heads. This was my biggest fear. The PO's lack of follow-through actually worked in my favor this time. When he installed the headers, he didn't bother to tighten the bolts. Some of them were literally only finger tight. To my surprise and great relief, I had the headers unbolted in less than 10 minutes. Next, I used a reciprocating saw to slice apart the temporary exhaust. So far, so good...

It was time to pull the rusty old headers out of the engine bay. There's not way this part was going to go smoothly. Not a chance. After all, the headers where intended for a gen 1 Camaro, not a gen 1 C10. The passenger side header dropped out through the bottom without much fanfare. But, the driver side header couldn't go up without removing the brake master cylinder and couldn't go down without removing the clutch linkage. Either way, I was opening a can of worms. I flipped a coin and removed the clutch linkage. This turned out to be a good thing considering the lousy condition the linkage was in. With the linkage out of the way, the header finally gave up and exited the truck for good.

What I didn't mention before now is that I've never worked on a clutch before. I've always worked with automatic transmissions, so I had no idea what I was doing. Time to learn something new! The clutch linkage went back together OK, but the clutch pedal just flopped around. There was zero tension. Upon further examination, I discovered that the PO didn't bother to tighten the adjuster nuts on the clutch push rod. <start of rant> I'm beginning to think that maybe he didn't own any wrenches. If he did own wrenches, he was too lazy to actually, you know, turn them! The only thing holding the push rod in adjustment was the rust on the adjustment threads. I'm lucky this thing hasn't left me on the side of the road stuck in gear. <end of rant> Once I cleaned up the rusty threads and tightened the adjuster nuts, the clutch started clutching again.

Meanwhile, back on the exhaust project, I pulled the shiny new ram-horns from the box and threw them on the engine. That all went well. The manifolds came with new shiny chrome hardware and even included the necessary exhaust gaskets. It really is nice to work with quality parts. Once I got the new manifolds installed, I realized that the spark plug wires were too short and were laying directly on the manifolds. That was OK. I was ready for bed anyway. It was midnight and I had work the next morning. The plug wires could wait.

I did a bit of quick research before work on Wednesday and found some references to a set of plug wires that were made for an HEI distributor and were long enough to route down behind the engine and under the ram-horns, just like the factory used to do it. AND, my local O'Reilly's just happen to have a set of them on the shelf. This is all MUCH better than my usual luck. The plug wires are OmniSpark part number 9373. Just tell the guy at the counter that you need plug wires for a 1975 Corvette. No kidding, it has to be a Corvette. The rest of the 1975 small block line came with points instead of HEI.

After work, I installed the new plug wires and they fit much better than I expected. I wish I had the 1975 Corvette plug wire looms, but a few judicious zip ties should keep the wires corralled away from the new exhaust. I got the truck running (VERY LOUDLY) and loaded on the trailer just as the sun disappeared for the night.

First thing this morning, I dropped the truck off at the exhaust shop. The shop owner was happy to be working on a classic truck. I'm sure he gets tired of replacing rusted out mufflers on late model commuter vehicles. With any luck, I'll be able to pick it up by noon tomorrow. All of this happened so quickly that I didn't get any pictures of the shiny new manifolds or the freshly hidden plug wires. I'll add some pictures after I get the truck back home in the garage. But, I can tell you that the engine bay already looks much better. No more rusty headers and rats nest of tangled plug wires.

More coming soon...