[Backtobasics]

I am tearing one of these apart right now for headgasket.
I did notice that the exhaust manifold comes to an oval opening that connects to the cat converter. The opening on the converter is larger then the manifold, so the exhaust along the walls of the manifold is slamming into a lip on the converter.

Other then a gasket kit and some time, you could pull the manifold, port the opening for no restriction, and check out your converter at the same time.

The intake is a bit funky with baffles, and a monster housing above the throttle body, some ingenuity could clean that up?

The throttle body on this car was FILTHY.

I have not looked at the exhaust configuration. Any obvious restrictions? Perhaps a low restriction muffler with stock tubing diameter?