Another Sunday come and gone. Cade and I tackled final engine placement and exhaust. The biggest issue with the exhaust was clearing the steering box.

I had 4 sets of exhaust to start with. A set of the shorty headers, a pair of the 4 bolt flange truck/Chrysler 300 manifolds and 2 pair of 55-56 Chrysler exhaust manifolds.

exhaust by M Patterson, on Flickr

We tried the headers first no way/ no how (kind of figured that but had to try). Next up was the truck manifolds. These were the ones I really wanted to use. These have a 2 ½” outlet and are supposed to be the best flowing factory manifolds for the early HEMIs. Unfortunately, because of the angle the manifolds dumped at they didn’t clear the steering box.

A pair of the 55-56 manifolds did fit. It’s tight around the steering box but I’ve built cars with less clearance. I’ll probably build a heat shield between the box and manifold but it’s a manual steering gear and should be fine.

The 55-56 manifolds only have a 2 inch outlet and are the option I least wanted to use. That being said I ran the same manifolds on the 57 Plymouth from the time I built it. Even with the dual quads the 354 (364 CI with the overbore) ran fine with them. If I was in better shape I’d probably build a set of custom headers for it, but I don’t think my back will let me and the time I’d spend building them will be less time I’ll have to enjoy the car.


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