Ok, here’s the situation… I’ve got a 98 civic sedan SOHC with california emissions (cat up front inside exhaust manifold), with a huge amount of rust on the front-cat and front downpipe and now the downpipe is rusted to shit and separating where it connects to the long pipe going to the back of the car. The mid-pipe, rear muffler, etc is in great shape. What do you guys suggest with this situation, should I dump the california emissions crap and put a cheap header on, or try to fit a new downpipe to the rusty pre-cat (most likely will result in a huge fail due to the amount of rust on the thing). If I put a header on, I need a new exhaust from the header back, right?
I really don’t want to have to buy a whole new front cat assembly and downpipe because I think it’s the shittiest setup ever, probably chokes the engine like a mofo and it costs too much.