(Un) Civilizing my M body

[drpreposterous]

Hey, guys!

Now that I've discarded the idea of discarding my '77 LeBaron coupe, I wanted your guys take on suggestions for spiffing her up. With the sale of my crappy Pontiac G6, Ruby has become my daily driver. Don't wince. I know all about Michigan's salt baths. But Ruby is my chariot for better or worse for the next few years I undercoated the crap out of her. Now as to what's next, I'd love your input:

1. She'll need an exhaust soon. I've heard of the Canadian Y-pipe and the possibility of doing a dual with headers and 4bll carb/intake as shown here:

http://www.angelfire.com/ca/mikesspot/exhaust.html

What are the pros and cons? I know the duals will cost more, but is it exorbitant? I can afford a fair outlay. Would love the sound of duals, I'm thinking. What would it do for fuel economy and peformance?

2. Suspension work. Nothing wrong right now. I know, "If it ain't broke...." But those FirmFeel.com suspension packages seem to promise a whole nother level of ride. Is it worth the high outlay (looks like 2K plus in parts alone)?

3. Am planning on a conversion to R134. Any caveats?

4. What else would you do? My G6 sale left me with about $5K I can throw into it. Can't use it for a winter beater. Too many teens in the household and too many cars.

 

[mirada80]

That is the exhaust system I am ordering sans the mufflers and either keeping the stock manifolds or using the heddmen headers that are on my LeBaron. Not sure which headers they are but they don't capture the starter and the draglink doesn't go through them. They were on the car when I bought it. Seen that system on other M's looks good, going to fit it to my Mirada.

 

[Jack Meoff]

I'm going with the Y pipe on my Fifth (Walker 40430) and a single 2 1/4" back. More than adequate for my stock 318 from what I've been told. Unless you're going the HP route there's no huge gains to be had going bigger or running duals.