Fascinating reading guys. Thanks.

One question about the Q designation.

Chrycoman said

"Just a note - the year "Q" was used only once - for the 1960 Valiant. All other 1960 Chrysler vehicles were "P". And not many know the 1960 Valiant was the only Valiant that was not a "V"."

Was that because the 1960 Valiant was supposed to be it's own all new product line and not a Plymouth?

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"Former Owner" of '65 Barracuda, 225, Auto, MP 2bbl intake, MP cam, Dutra Duals. Presently Moparless.

We will probably never know the real reason why "Q" was used to designate the 1960 model year for the Valiant. This is an anomalous case because year-letters were in all other cases applied to all Chrysler Corporation vehicles, regardless of brand. 1961 vehicles were all "R" models, whether they were Dodge, Plymouth, Chrysler, Imperial, DeSoto, Dodge Truck or Fargo Truck, for example.

The odd-man-out model designators ("X" for the Valiant in 1960, "V" for the Valiant thereafter, and "W" for the Dodge compact in 1961, "L" for the Dodge compact thereafter) were perhaps an experiment in denoting the first year for any particular model family. An alternate explanation is that the model name had yet to be settled upon when the parts and service literature began to be written, so an abbreviation was chosen arbitrarily. It's possible the standalone-make Valiant might've gained it the "X" designator in 1960, as Imperial (also considered a standalone make) was designated "Y".

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Thanks GTS225 That's what we're doing! Good suggestion. In fact thanks all for the welcome and interesting help. Any more thoughts on the exhaust issue? We'll be running 2 1/4 into the Muffler, I think. Is exit pipe an issue, or should we run 2 1/4 out as well?

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And if I claim to be a wise man, it surely means that I don't know - Kansas