Part 2
09/14/07
It was the great Scottish poet Robert Burns who wrote "The best laid plans of mice and men aft gang aglee," which roughly translated means no matter how much time and money you allow for the completion of a project car figure it will take twice that time and money and nothing that is supposed to just bolt on will.
I now know this to be true after the first year I spent on El Camino Nitrouso and was only halfway through doing one of project tasks that I was supposed to have finished in about four months.
In the last installment we went through the steps to install our NOS nitrous system, route lines, install the bottle and then modify and install an aftermarket steering wheel to hold the arming switch for the nitrous.
After my self-induced wounds incurred from installing the aftermarket wheel healed and my friend Bill Weckman forgot how much of a pain in the ass it is to work with a mechanically challenged magazine editor, he reluctantly agreed to go on to the next step required to transform the El Camino into the Wednesday Night Warrior.
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Since the engine had relatively mild (9-1) static compression, a nitrous kit, and a good ignition system we both agreed that headers and high performance mufflers would be required. As mentioned in the last installment, I called the folks at Dynomax and blatantly begged them for a set of headers and aftermarket mufflers. I chose them because of their involvement with the NMCA series and the number of cars I had seen at those races with their headers. They agreed to furnish the headers and mufflers and not too long after talking with one of their techs a big box with the headers and mufflers appeared on DRO's office doorstep. The technician at Dynomax told me over the phone that the headers should fit but might require a little work to clear everything. He was absolutely right about the “clearancing” required.
The installation of the headers required a little heating, beating and moving, but the JetHot coated headers fit and look really cool.
Next we took the Dynomax street mufflers down to Mad Hatter Muffler in Granite City, Illinois to weld up the flanges to connect the headers to the stock exhaust pipe and then cut and weld the mufflers in.
