My side pipes and headers came in this week, and I was finally able to install these beauties today. I'm very impressed by the quality of the Doug's pipes, it's very nice pieces. I ordered the silver ceramic and they look like they're SS!! Beautiful finish on these.


First thing was removing the old exhaust .This was a crappy old system , and the sawzall made quick work of removal.



Next I pulled the rockers covers off and found some nice souvenirs from Bubba: the car had side pipes on in the past, and the mounts were welded to the frame! Had to cut them off, and also gave me an opportunity to wire wheel the old undercoasting and overspray off to clean up the frame.






Old mounts off and frame cleaned up.


Next was getting the headers in. I attempted to do this by myself, and that wasn't happening! But got my buddy to come over and help me out. they easily go in from the bottom, and he was able to start the bolts from up top.


Headers fit perfectly



The mounts that come with the kit to get the side pipes on is tricky, but works well. I put some anti seize on the headers so I can separate the pipes from the headers in the future. Love the way they look!






Got about 85% finished up today, and was ready to relax for the rest of my Sunday. All I have left for tomorrow evening is: passenger side pipe, plug wires, alternator, and clutch Z-link. I'll be able to do my first start tomorrow and see how loud this is without baffles, it's going to be awesome

 

Grab your earplugs, It's gonna be loud! The headers look really nice!

 

Looks Great! and Nice Work!

(Thought for you; if too loud, my 68 that came with OBX side pipes had Doug's inserts in the side pipes. The inserts look sorta like the internals of a muffle and I am sure the inserts reduce hp a little, but the sound with the inserts is a little more than a regular exhaust but not by a whole lot. Of course I had to crank it up with only the collection pipe open exhaust to check and compare and be sure! .).

 

Looks great, I love the look of headers and side pipes.

I'm still going back and forth as to whether I want side pipes or under car exhaust on my '76.
I'd like to get the heat out from under the car but I don't know how long I'd like the exhaust right there.

 

Word to the wise, they get 🔥 HOT!!!

 

I didn't buy inserts, and going to attempt to run it straight lol Going to wake up the neighborhood when I fire her up this evening

 

They just look so awesome, I think it's the way to go!!! I've been practicing getting in and out, i'm sure I'll burn my leg, but oh well lol

 

It ain't your leg you gotta worry about!

 

Generally it’s the wife who gets burned while she is getting out or in on the passenger side.

 

i went for a ride in Johnnies vette with thes pipes and as soon as we stopped he was warning me very loudly to step well away from the pipes. He said he usually has a twel to drape over them for rookies. I didnt burn my leg then, it was a couple of years later working on said car and I stepped up to it to look under the hood when my shin touched the side pipe....I sure do miss that skin

 

oh man if I got a nickel every time someone warned me about burns lol The rewards are worth the risk in my book!

 

Quickly got the car wrapped up and was able to fire her up for the first time: LOVE the sound from the straight pipes! Here's a video:

 

Well guys, I've been over on the tech forum past few days deciding on which Holley to run, and I made a decision: Holley HP Street 650 DP. Thread is below if anyone is interested:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ch-carb-3.html


I got the carb inspected and broken down today and it's in real good condition, just a little stale gas in the bowls and a quick cleaning. I'm going to order new gaskets, power valves, and jets to return it to stock specs. Interestingly it has size 75 jets in the primaries & secondaries, as well as power valves blocked on both sides.. Is this a wide open drag race thing?

 

Waiting on a couple of small things to come in on Monday to rebuild my Holley and set it up, so this weekend I was able to get the 02 bung welded in my side pipes and install my AEM wide band. One of my close friends is a very talented welded/fabricator, and is always happy to TIG things for me in exchange for whiskey! So I made the one hour road trip Saturday morning North to the town of St. Francisville. I knew it was going to be LOUD with the straight side pipes so I wore my Bluetooth safety ear muffs I use for cutting grass for the ride LOL Car did great, and cruises beautifully down the road. It cruises at 3000RPM at 65MPH, so i definitely do not have the 3.08's in my car, and I think 3.70 from the calculators I looked at.

First thing we did was get the sensor and bung lined up properly, marked, drill the hole, and tacked it in place.



We pulled the headers off so he could properly weld the bung in.



Afterwards I had to put some exhaust paint on my new headers. It's ugly, but it can't be seen and will protect from rust.



We then put it back together and went cruising on country back roads until we ended up at the Oyster Bar on Bayou Sara.



We decided to run back and grab my buddies skiff to run up the Mississippi river and into Bayou Sara, it was a cool way to end a fun day of wrenching with a great friend!

 

Had some time to get busy on my Holley rebuild this week, and my all my parts came in.

I let the bowls and metering blocks soak over night disassembled in my chem dip bucket. Pulled them out, blew them off with compressed air, and blew out all circuits in the blocks. Started assembly with the floats, then needle and seats. Set the float level half way between the float level plugs as a starting point.



On the front metering block I installed #69 jets and 6.5 power valve to start at stock specs.


Put new gaskets on idle screws then set them all 1.5 turns out.


New accelerator pumps, and put a 30cc pump arm and diaphragm on the primary to keep it all stock.

 

Carb is fully cleaned and reassembled with fresh parts. Final steps are setting the throttle blades and air bleeds.

While I was wrenching this past weekend, I did some work on my timing. When I initially set it, I didn't quite know what I was doing, as I've always had EFI vehicles, so i just set the base to 10 degrees. After checking my total timing, it was only at 27! Set it to 34, and my initial ended up being 15! The extra timing definitely makes a difference, and the engine loved it!

When I put my AEM UEGO wideband in this weekend, the gauge also didn't work properly: it'd go through start up then read full lean, no matter if the 02 was plugged in or not. I called AEM, and they said it should read 14.7 when the sensor is unplugged, and certainly shouldn't read full lean when plugged in. This indicated a bad gauge, so they're warranting it out and sending me a new one.

 

Carb looks great.
Nice work!

 

Yes that carb was set up for drag racing. THe power valve is roughly worth 10 jet sizes so dropping to the mid 60s was a good choice. Similarly 14 to 16 seems to be the base for timing to be 36 to 38 all in. Good job, I cant wait to see how your AEM sets you up for carb tuning. It is the best tool ever invented to square away a carb. You will learn alot fast with that AEM

 

Thanks so much for all your help in getting this carb setup! I'll continue to need it once it's installed, the wideband will be an invaluable tool for sure in perfecting the fuel curve. I want to see where the Edelbrock is before I pull it off too, give us a better idea of the benchmark for improvement before the Holley is installed.

 

When you are tuning you will benefit from a vacuum gauge as well. I have one hard mounted but you can get a really long length of rubber vacuum hose and Tee it off the manifold vacuum port and just temp mount it to the dash next to your AFR gauge. IT will help to let you know when your rods are starting to lift in the Eddy and when your power valve should be coming in on the Holley.