Screwup after screwup... what to do?

I always used to think the real way to fix the ground dragging problem was to weld a set of caster wheels to the bottom of the K frame! Preferably "borrowed" off a large dumpster....
Once a long time ago (1983-84), I bought a set of used headers from a guy's trunk.. he'd had them on his 70 Duster. I took them home and took the steering apart on my 72 318 Duster and put them on.. and put the steering back together. Imagine my surprise when the steering didn't go through them!

And... you would have had to drag the frame rails on the ground to smash them. I have no idea what brand they were.. they had 1 5/8 tubes, and 2.5 inch collectors.. only bad thing about them. The other feature that was wierd about them was that they had a slip fit tube on the passenger side where they really didn't need help... makes me wonder if these weren't Casler's or one of the other defunct brands.

Now it just so happens that 20 years later a buddy gave me another set of these 2.5 inch collector headers.. with that same wierd right side tube.. and they are hanging on my garage wall. I think they are the same things. I'll venture out into the icebox and take some pics for you guys tomorrow.

These things were a vast improvement over the stock 318 manifolds.. using my street racing dyno of the time.. I picked up 3 car lengths worth of power over the stock manifolds and single exhaust the car came with.
The muffler shop put 2.5 inch pipes (maybe 2 1/4) with Firebird application resonators instead of mufflers.. loud as hell but it sure made power!

My buddy with the 78 Camaro LT.. that already had a bigger engine, a shift kit and several other "advantages" was pissed when I could stay even with him.. he no longer enjoyed the 3 length advantage! So he had to go get headers too.. and then I beat him by 2! Hello lean mixture... a shelled engine soon followed.. but I digress.


If it turned out these are the same things I used to have, maybe they could be used as a master. Not as good as set of TTI's or Dougs, but I bet they could be made for a lot less... and improved with a set of 3" collectors too..

Stay tuned.

Alan