diff --git a/lib/http.js b/lib/http.js
index 46c37ca390..476316743f 100644
--- a/lib/http.js
+++ b/lib/http.js
@@ -264,9 +264,6 @@ function OutgoingMessage (socket) {
   this.shouldKeepAlive = true;
   this.useChunkedEncodingByDefault = true;
 
-  this._headerFlushed = false;
-  this._header = null; // to be filled by _storeHeader
-
   this._hasBody = true;
 
   this.finished = false;
@@ -277,38 +274,66 @@ exports.OutgoingMessage = OutgoingMessage;
 // This abstract either writing directly to the socket or buffering it.
 // Rename to _writeRaw() ?
 OutgoingMessage.prototype._send = function (data, encoding) {
-  if (this.connection._outgoing[0] === this &&
-      this.connection.writable &&
-      this.output.length === 0)
-  {
+  // This is a shameful hack to get the headers and first body chunk onto
+  // the same packet. Future versions of Node are going to take care of
+  // this at a lower level and in a more general way.
+  if (!this._headerSent) {
+    if (typeof data === 'string') {
+      data = this._header + data;
+    } else {
+      this.output.unshift(this._header);
+      this.outputEncodings.unshift('ascii');
+    }
+    this._headerSent = true;
+  }
+
+  if (this.connection._outgoing[0] === this && this.connection.writable) {
+    // There might be pending data in the this.output buffer.
+    while (this.output.length) {
+      if (!this.connection.writable) {
+        this._buffer(data, encoding);
+        return false;
+      }
+      var c = this.output.shift();
+      var e = this.outputEncodings.shift();
+      this.connection.write(c, e);
+    }
+
     // Directly write to socket.
     return this.connection.write(data, encoding);
   } else {
-    // Buffer
-    var length = this.output.length;
-
-    if (length === 0 || typeof data != 'string') {
-      this.output.push(data);
-      encoding = encoding || "ascii";
-      this.outputEncodings.push(encoding);
-      return false;
-    }
+    this._buffer(data, encoding);
+    return false;
+  }
+};
 
-    var lastEncoding = this.outputEncodings[length-1];
-    var lastData = this.output[length-1];
+OutgoingMessage.prototype._buffer = function (data, encoding) {
+  // Buffer
+  if (data.length === 0) return;
 
-    if ((lastEncoding === encoding) ||
-        (!encoding && data.constructor === lastData.constructor)) {
-      this.output[length-1] = lastData + data;
-      return false;
-    }
+  var length = this.output.length;
 
+  if (length === 0 || typeof data != 'string') {
     this.output.push(data);
     encoding = encoding || "ascii";
     this.outputEncodings.push(encoding);
+    return false;
+  }
 
+  var lastEncoding = this.outputEncodings[length-1];
+  var lastData = this.output[length-1];
+
+  if ((lastEncoding === encoding) ||
+      (!encoding && data.constructor === lastData.constructor)) {
+    this.output[length-1] = lastData + data;
     return false;
   }
+
+  this.output.push(data);
+  encoding = encoding || "ascii";
+  this.outputEncodings.push(encoding);
+
+  return false;
 };
 
 
@@ -377,9 +402,8 @@ OutgoingMessage.prototype._storeHeader = function (firstLine, headers) {
     }
   }
 
-  messageHeader += CRLF;
-
-  this._header = messageHeader;
+  this._header = messageHeader + CRLF;
+  this._headerSent = false;
   // wait until the first body chunk, or close(), is sent to flush.
 };
 
@@ -391,7 +415,7 @@ OutgoingMessage.prototype.sendBody = function () {
 
 OutgoingMessage.prototype.write = function (chunk, encoding) {
   if (!this._header) {
-    throw new Error("writeHead() must be called before write()")
+    throw new Error("You have to call writeHead() before write()");
   }
 
   if (!this._hasBody) {
@@ -404,13 +428,6 @@ OutgoingMessage.prototype.write = function (chunk, encoding) {
     throw new TypeError("first argument must be a string, Array, or Buffer");
   }
 
-  // write the header
-
-  if (!this._headerFlushed) {
-    this._send(this._header);
-    this._headerFlushed = true;
-  }
-
   if (chunk.length === 0) return false;
 
   var len, ret;
@@ -451,22 +468,50 @@ OutgoingMessage.prototype.close = function (data, encoding) {
 
 OutgoingMessage.prototype.end = function (data, encoding) {
   var ret;
-  // maybe the header hasn't been sent. if not send it.
-  if (!this._headerFlushed) {
-    ret = this._send(this._header);
-    this._headerFlushed = true;
-  }
 
-  if (data) {
+  var hot = this._headerSent === false
+         && typeof(data) === "string"
+         && data.length > 0
+         && this.output.length === 0
+         && this.connection.writable
+         && this.connection._outgoing[0] === this
+          ;
+
+  if (hot) {
+    // Hot path. They're doing
+    //   res.writeHead();
+    //   res.end(blah);
+    // HACKY.
+    if (this.chunkedEncoding) {
+      var l = Buffer.byteLength(data, encoding).toString(16);
+      ret = this.connection.write( this._header
+                                 + l
+                                 + CRLF
+                                 + data
+                                 + "\r\n0\r\n\r\n"
+                                 , encoding
+                                 );
+    } else {
+      ret = this.connection.write(this._header + data, encoding);
+    }
+    this._headerSent = true;
+
+  } else if (data) {
+    // Normal body write.
     ret = this.write(data, encoding);
   }
 
-  this.finished = true;
-
-  if (this.chunkedEncoding) {
-    ret = this._send("0\r\n\r\n"); // last chunk
+  if (!hot) {
+    if (this.chunkedEncoding) {
+      ret = this._send('0\r\n\r\n'); // Last chunk.
+    } else if (!data) {
+      // Force a flush, HACK.
+      ret = this._send('');
+    }
   }
 
+  this.finished = true;
+
   // There is the first message on the outgoing queue, and we've sent
   // everything to the socket.
   if (this.output.length === 0 && this.connection._outgoing[0] === this) {
@@ -638,11 +683,13 @@ function httpSocketSetup (socket) {
   // An array of outgoing messages for the socket. In pipelined connections
   // we need to keep track of the order they were sent.
   socket._outgoing = [];
+  socket.__destroyOnDrain = false;
 
   // NOTE: be sure not to use ondrain elsewhere in this file!
   socket.ondrain = function () {
     var message = socket._outgoing[0];
     if (message) message.emit('drain');
+    if (socket.__destroyOnDrain) socket.destroy();
   };
 }
 
@@ -740,7 +787,14 @@ function connectionListener (socket) {
     var message = socket._outgoing.shift();
     if (message._last) {
       // No more messages to be pushed out.
-      socket.end();
+
+      // HACK: need way to do this with socket interface
+      if (socket._writeQueue.length) {
+        socket.__destroyOnDrain = true; //socket.end();
+      } else {
+        socket.destroy();
+      }
+
     } else if (socket._outgoing.length) {
       // Push out the next message.
       outgoingFlush(socket);
@@ -1002,7 +1056,7 @@ exports.cat = function (url, encoding_, headers_) {
       client.end();
       return;
     }
-    res.setBodyEncoding(encoding);
+    res.setEncoding(encoding);
     res.addListener('data', function (chunk) { content += chunk; });
     res.addListener('end', function () {
       if (callback && !callbackSent) {
diff --git a/test/simple/test-http-304.js b/test/simple/test-http-304.js
index 896c932141..8ffa07d426 100644
--- a/test/simple/test-http-304.js
+++ b/test/simple/test-http-304.js
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ var sys = require('sys'),
 s = http.createServer(function (request, response) {
   response.writeHead(304);
   response.end();
-})
+});
 s.listen(PORT);
 sys.puts('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:'+PORT+'/')