don't that look cozy ... like one of the family!

good ol dodgeman, always full of useful information

Back in 1980 - '81 i ran a 1977 six cylinder Valiant like this, with extractors & stock inlet. Even after a 100 mile run, the thing was an absolute pig to drive in town. During the winter was worse, but even in summer it was not good. A portable exhaust gas analyser quickly showed why. The mixture was seriously lean, yet the thing loved fuel like a dipsomaniac loves whiskey.

I bought & fitted a new exhaust manifold & it ran as sweet as you could wish after that. All of the liquid fuel that was passing out the tailpipe before was now being converted into a gas & it was burning, thereby producing power. Fuel consumption improved dramaticly & there was no noticeable change in power.

Unfortunately that really satisfying exhaust sound was gone. Oh well, it was a company car anyway & it was soon replaced with a new series 1 Bluebird sedan in February of '82. I hated it.