I completely understand your frustration about the crappy remakes. And I made the mistake of having them ceramic coated before I found out that they didn't fit at all. How hard could it be to fix the castings? And Patrick seemed apathetic and acted like I should have expected to do all that grinding. Or what he said "a little grinding". After I bought them of course. I have discovered that both a McGurk and an Edelbrock 2X1 fit the original exhaust manifold just right, no grinding involved. That and the added bonus of the most effective heating system. I think this conversation has caused me jump to the split the original exhaust manifold side of the fence for my next build.
On a better note, I also have Patrick's s/s dual muffler and it sounds great. I bought just the muffler and had a local shop run 2" pipes for $300. I plan on replacing those with s/s next year when my 261 is complete.
